Flick Through
by Ms Trick
Summary: Sakura is 18, in high school, and wondering exactly how to tell four of the hottest guys in her class that they were ninja in a past life...and that right now, the world needs them to be ninja again. SasuNaru. GaaraLee.
1. Atarashii

**Flick Through**  
Atarashii (New)

* * *

_Author_: Ms Trick

_Notes_: I thrive on reviews and cupcakes. I would be honoured to accept either.

* * *

Reno, Nevada

Sakura tapped her pen against her open notebook and impatiently glanced at the clock hanging on the darkened classroom's wall. In front of the gathering of bored students, a video about something or other was playing but it was difficult to hear it over the fans whirring above. So the tape held almost no one's attention save Mr. Ebisu's and he was standing next to the damn thing.

She twisted her pink hair up off the back of her sweaty neck and tied it into a ponytail, nostalgically remembering Ebisu chasing Konohamaru and his around the streets of Konoha when Konohamaru was still a little kid.

She sighed, thinking of the hardened genin he was now. She tried to focus on the film.

_This is pointless_, she internally whined.

It was late spring. It was hot outside. Sakura only had one more exam to get through and then she was completely done for the year. And that exam was not Ebisu's French one. Not to mention she still had yet to figure out how to approach the four she needed with what she knew would be the flippin weirdest request of their lives.

Sakura looked down at her blank notebook, remembering the Godaime's words from...was it really just two days ago that she was home in Konoha?

_She stood at attention in front of her teacher as Tsunade spoke over the noise of the hospital, which was in constant disorder. Nurses and doctors and medic-nin weaved through a non-stop parade of wounded ninja and civilians and the blonde sannin had pulled her out of the parade's path to continue explaining her mission._

"_Four, Sakura. You have enough chakra to activate the chakras of four others plus your own. You need to do it quickly and then find Kabuto as fast as you can. This is not going to be easy."_

Sakura could have kicked herself for taking two full days to recuperate her wits after Tsunade's jutsu had catapulted her into this strange future. She hadn't been expecting the weight of two sets of memories to be so heavy.

At first, she couldn't sort out which memories belonged to her, Haruno Sakura the kunoichi from the Hidden Village of Leaf, and which memories belonged to Sakura Hardwick, senior at Leafseek Highschool in Reno in 2007.

But now Sakura was sitting bored and calm in her French class, having gotten a handle on herself. She was used to being two people, though recently she and Inner Sakura had been morphing into each other.

She did her best to operate on a need-to-know basis. She was first and foremost a ninja and was keeping the memories of who she was here in the back of her mind. She was on a mission. She could do this.

It didn't help that the Godaime's timing had been off, she thought with a snicker, glancing down at her chest. She was technically sixteen years old but when she was hurled into the body of her future self, it had taken about five minutes for her to realize that her boobs had not been that big a minute ago. She had an eighteen-year-old's body.

As such she was a little clumsy.

The bell rang and when Sakura stood, she nearly fell off her strange feet in their strange shoes. Ino gave her a concerned look as she tucked her nail file (guess what she'd been doing all class) into her purse.

Sakura shot her a smile and pulled her sunglasses on so Ino wouldn't notice her gaze lingering on her friend's pale blonde hair, which came to a neat end just below her ears. It reminded Sakura of when they were kids and Ino had seemed like the coolest kunoichi wannabe in the whole village.

Then again, her future self recalled a young Ino with hair falling to past her waist.

Sakura shook her head slightly to regain her focus and pulled her large bag's shoulder strap over her head.

The students streamed through the classroom door and burst into the hall to join the throngs of others that were all glad to be finished for the day. And the week, consequently. It was Friday.

"Found a dress yet?" Ino asked, also pulling on her sunglasses as they worked their way towards the school's east exit, the one near the soccer field.

Sakura let herself be Sakura Hardwick for a few minutes and chatted with Ino about prom dresses in the sun on the steps of their high school. She spotted Temari (whose last name was ironically Sands) slinking out in a black sweater that was way too big for her and looked way too hot.

This was odd as she was usually in something mesh, or tight fitting, or lowcut. Temari was sexy and she knew it and she wasn't afraid of showing off, which her current outfit didn't quite do.

"Is that one of Kankurou's sweaters?" Ino asked with a snicker, indicating their friend with the lollipop she just unwrapped.

"Tem! What are you _wearing_?" Sakura called to her friend, whose dirty blond hair was in two pigtails rather than her usual four.

"Shut up!" Temari demanded as she approached them. "My alarm didn't go off and I couldn't find anything to wear."

Sakura and Ino laughed and Temari stuck her tongue at them.

"Prepared to swoon?" Ino giggled, glancing at the school doors, where two very familiar boys were stepping into the sunshine, each with a duffel bag in hand.

Sakura's heart clenched and she looked up at them. And it was not just because Naruto and Sasuke at eighteen were _hot_. But the turmoil she had watched them go through in her time that was so harsh...wasn't there. You could see it in their faces, in their postures. Sasuke's stance wasn't that of someone deadly, Naruto's stance wasn't that of someone who had defended himself his entire life.

Naruto was laughing and punching Sasuke's shoulder. He was in black sneakers, a scruffy pair of jeans, and an orange (of course) t-shirt. On his head was a pair of goggles worn for some reason unknown to both Sakura's future self and her past self.

Sasuke stood next to him like the model of Naruto's antithesis in a black long-sleeved button down lying open over a white wife beater and dark jeans.

Sasuke looked at Naruto and _smiled_. Not the smirk Sakura had only ever seen him wear in her time. A real smile.

Sakura bit her lip, her heart aching. This was a time and place when her two team mates were happy. Here, in Reno, in 2007, there was no curse seal poisoning Sasuke's aura, there was no Kyuubi buried into Naruto's soul. Sasuke was not the only survivor of a massacre. Naruto didn't spend his life shunned for reasons beyond his control.

"Yoohoo? Sakura?" Ino's voice cut into her melancholy thoughts like a beam of light.

"Woah, sorry. What?"

"Heh, the enchantment that is Sasuke and Naruto get to you?" Ino asked with a laugh before popping the lollipop back into her mouth.

"Did I drool?" Sakura asked, a smile making its way to her face.

"Where is my fucking twin?" Temari complained irritably, eyes fixed on the school's doors.

"Making out with Kiba in the parking lot," came a voice from behind Sakura, making the three of them start.

She turned to find none other than Gaara standing there.

She knew that this guy in black cargo slacks, mesh to his elbows, and dark eyeliner around his eyes was just a quiet high school junior in this time period, but Sakura couldn't help checking herself. She was used to him being a rather large political figure, after all.

But much like Sasuke and Naruto, this was a Gaara that hadn't been sharpened to a point and grated raw by life. This was a Gaara with family, with parents rather than a tough shinobi sensei. This was a Gaara that hadn't carved the word 'love' into his own forehead.

"Kiba?" Sakura said, incredulous.

The Godaime had mentioned this, the strange parallels and opposites between this future and the past. Naruto and Sasuke were best friends regardless of trials and circumstance. But Kiba and Kankurou were thoroughly involved when they'd hardly had any interaction in her time.

Gaara shrugged and shifted his books from the crook of his elbow to his other arm.

Temari scowled. She snagged her brother's wrist and, dragging him behind her, called out a goodbye to Sakura and Ino. She stalked down the steps and towards the busy parking lot that was a mess of people and cars trying to leave.

"Ah, there's TenTen. Sure you don't want to come with us to the mall?" Ino said, absently twisting the now-bare and soggy lollipop stick in her fingers.

"I'm good. But call me later!" Sakura said, playing the part of herself perfectly.

Ino bid goodbye and jogged down the steps in her purple flip flops to where TenTen was waiting in a little silver car.

Sakura waved goodbye and transferred her bag to the other shoulder. The school grounds were a little less hectic now that much of the crowd had managed to flee. Sakura wandered over to the bleachers bordering the soccer field and tiredly dragged herself to a seat that would give her a good view of the team's last practice of the year--they had their last game tomorrow.

She found herself not too far from Hinata and her sister Hanabi. Hinata was dressed quite pretty today, Sakura thought, eying the dark-haired girl's long, flowing white skirt. She had large black headphones over her ears and was absently watching the soccer team begin their warm-ups with purple eyes that Sakura couldn't help but think didn't suit her as well as her white ones. Next to her, Hanabi sat with some math homework spread out on her knees. Hanabi was still in middle school...maybe she was a freshmen?

Sakura blinked as she found her thoughts meandering into the territory of Sakura Hardwick. This was not was she was here to concentrate on.

She turned her attention to the field and from behind her sunglasses, searched out three of the four teens she needed to contact.

Naruto was the easiest to find, of course; his blonde hair nearly reflected the afternoon sunlight as he kicked the ball towards...who else? Sasuke.

That was one and two. It took her another full minute to locate Lee.

Hell, it had taken her nearly all of yesterday just to figure out who he was. While immensely recognizable as Konoha's Beautiful Green Beast Jr, here his black hair--usually in a bowl cut--was short and spiked straight up. And Sakura hadn't seen him in spandex yet, though he did wear a lot of green.

Of course, all he had to do was grin and shove a peace sign into Neji's face for Sakura to find him.

Sakura eyed three of the four she had chosen to help her stop Kabuto. She needed the strongest ninja she knew: Naruto, Sasuke, Gaara, and Lee. And not only strong, she needed ninja who had the willpower to get through this. If nothing else, these four had willpower.

She sighed loudly. What was she supposed to do? Walk out into the middle of the field, slap some chakra into them and say 'Hey? Know who I am? We hardly talk but in a past life we had our share of moments. Want superpowers?'

Great plan.

She knew Hinata and Hanabi had to wait for Neji to be done with practice so he could drive them home but Sakura figured she had no real reason for hanging around. It was obvious approaching them now wasn't going to happen.

Sakura came to a decision and got to her feet.

She'd give them their chakra boosts one at a time and when they realized there was something odd about them, she'd do her best to explain herself as fast as possible. Hopefully before dregs of their other memories started to flow into their unsuspecting minds.

Lee and Naruto were trusting by nature, she considered as she clambered off the bleachers. If she could show them that she was telling the truth, they'd believe her. Then Naruto could help convince Sasuke despite his innate suspicions.

She sighed and peered up as a cloud passed over the sun.

Gaara would be tough though. She'd have to try him first.

* * *

Her brilliant and not-thought-out-enough plan, of course, led to her standing next to a grumpy cactus in Nevada's Black Rock Desert while the redhead had a panic attack nearby.

That evening, she had made up some excuse to the Sands family that seemed plausible as to why she needed Gaara to come for a ride with her. She had driven until they were beyond the city and had desert on either side of the road--less than an hour. Over the rush of wind battering them in her jeep, she kept assuring him that yes, she would explain what was going on soon, that no, she wasn't crazy, and no, she wasn't kidnapping him.

She had stopped the jeep, pulling over to the side of the road and nearly hitting the cactus. Under his utterly confused gaze, she had taken his hand in hers and pressed two fingers into the flesh of his inner forearm.

The sudden sharp injection of a heady stream of blue chakra had sent Gaara reeling and falling out of the car.

And now he was scrabbling through sand that kept reacting to his fear and swirling around him in protective clouds. Glancing back at her motionless car, Sakura pulled her sweater around her and shivered in the desert night air. She walked towards the other teen slowly.

He sat on the golden ground frozen as a ring of sand swished and shuffled around him in a lazy orbit. He stared at it, confused and frightened.

"Ah," he gasped, startled, as the tender flesh on the inside of his wrist suddenly stung. He raised his arm to see a small black tattoo bubbling up to mark his skin where Sakura had pressed her fingers. It looked like the outline of a squat 'I'.

"What is going on?" He rasped out, staring at the strange mark.

"Gaara of the Desert," Sakura said clearly over the noise of rustling sand. "I'm here to tell you who you are."

He looked at her, his eyes heavy with eyeliner and narrowed. This shrewdness was part of the reason he was a great kazekage. But he didn't know that.

Sakura pulled her sweater tighter around her and continued.

"Well, I'm going to show you who you _were_. And then I'm going to tell you what you need to do now."


	2. Chuoko

**Flick Through II**  
Chuoko (Secondhand)

* * *

_Author_: Ms Trick

_Notes_: I thrive on reviews and cupcakes. I would be honoured to accept either.

* * *

Konoha

Shizune clutched some papers to her chest as she rushed through the crowded hospital hallway, her heels clicking on the linoleum floor. She hurriedly hopped out of the way of two medic-nin jogging by with a stretcher between them.

The war was taking its toll.

"Tsunade-sama?" Shizune called as she reached the end of the top floor corridor.

She found the Godaime hovering over one of the many occupied cots in the large hospital room. Her hands, lit with green healing chakra, flew to different parts of the anguished form of Neji, whose white eyes were staring blankly at the ceiling as his body arched and spasmed involuntarily.

"Damnit," Tsunade muttered, pressing her soothing fingers into his shoulder, where the stains from a deep sword wound lay like a flower on his white shirt.

Neji's mouth opened in a silent scream in pain and finally, he sank into an agonized unconscious state. His body lay like a corpse on the cot.

Shizune watched him worriedly as Tsunade finished closing the shoulder wound and did her best to calm and extinguish the body's spasms.

"What happened?" The dark-haired secretary asked from behind the Godaime's shoulder.

Tsunade wiped her forehead and standing, checked that no patients in the room needed her expert care at the moment. She sighed in exhaustion and swiped up a clipboard from a nearby table.

"Sasuke managed to get a hit with his katana and then instigated the Chidori Nagashi. He should recover though," Tsunade said tiredly as she marked instructions for Neji's care onto the clipboard.

"I see. Naruto wasn't in the vicinity was he?" Shizune questioned seriously, eyes still on Neji's unconscious form.

Tsunade's pen paused for a split second before continuing. "No. As far as I know, Naruto was with Kakashi on the north western front."

"Ah. Good. Strategically, it will be difficult to keep Sasuke and Naruto apart for the entire war...you know that."

"Shizune, what did you need?" The Hokage said, handing the clipboard to the nurse who just entered the room.

"Tsunade-sama..." Shizune started, holding out the papers for the blonde to see. "Sakura may not be in _the_ future. She may be in _a_ future--we have no guarantees that she made it to the correct one."

The Godaime pursed her ruby lips as she read over the meticulous calculations concerning the Time Thrust Jutsu.

"No, we replicated Orochimaru's jutsu exactly and Kakashi witnessed it with the sharingan activated. We need to believe Sakura's in the right place."

* * *

Reno

Gaara held onto the dashboard of Sakura's jeep as they sped towards the bright city, which vibrated with all the lighted architecture. His eyes stung from the wind and the grains of sand flying into his face. Sakura was concentrating intently on the road but this wasn't making the redhead feel any better. He double checked his seatbelt and then happened to glance up.

"Woah!" He said startled.

He scrunched into his seat defensively and Sakura turned her gaze up. A large, dark cloud of sand was hovering above them and swirling nervously.

"Eyes on the road," Gaara commanded, gripping the dashboard harder as Sakura barely kept the car on the asphalt strip.

"It reacts to your fear!" Sakura hollered over the wind. "Stop freaking out and the sand will!"

"Then STOP driving so fast," Gaara gritted out.

She heard him and sheepishly let up on the gas a little. As they approached civilization and they met more cars on the road, Sakura worried about the sand structure attracting attention. But it seemed that Gaara had calmed down because the cloud had retreated and was settling back onto the desert ground. By the time they were on the outskirts of the city, it had disappeared completely.

"You know where Naruto lives, right?" She asked when they had stopped at a red light.

Her plans were going a little faster than she had expected, but Sakura could think on her feet. If she could recruit all four teens tonight, they were that much closer to finding Kabuto and stopping him.

Gaara gave her concise directions with a cold voice that implied he _really_ wasn't too fond of her driving skills.

_Oh well_, she thought without guilt. _We're alive aren't we?_

While Sakura had the excuse that cars weren't the norm where she was from, her future self had no such way to reason away her bad driving. She caught sight of Gaara's wary glare and wondered if he'd remembered yet that he outranked her in the world of ninja.

"Here," the redhead said, indicating the large house on the corner of the quiet suburban street they were cruising down.

Sakura parked on top of the curb and as she killed the car's engine, Gaara held out an open hand.

"After we get Naruto, I'm driving," he said flatly.

She scowled but plunked the keys into his hand. She heard him manoeuvring into the driver's seat as she made her way across the spacious front lawn and up the steps to the beige front door.

The last name 'Spiral' was engraved on the bronze mailbox next to it. She regarded it wryly and then rang the doorbell. She groaned, suddenly remembering that the Sakura of this world was just one of Naruto's fangirls and he probably wouldn't accept an invitation to spend the night hanging out with her.

She listened to the doorbell echo through the house unanswered and checked her watch. Was it too late? Were they asleep? No, impossible, it wasn't even 10:00 pm. And the lights were still on.

Suddenly the door opened and Sakura found herself stunned into silence at the unexpected sight of her sensei.

"Sakura!"

"Tsunade?!"

Cue Sakura Hardwick. She squealed, giving the older girl a hug. "I haven't seen you since, what, like, spring break? When did you get back?"

"Term ended yesterday," the blonde said through a grin and leaned against the doorframe.

While her lips kept asking questions about how college was, Sakura's mind was marvelling at the teenaged sannin. Her blonde hair was pulled back in a short ponytail and she was in a plain t-shirt and short skirt. This was what Tsunade must have really looked like years ago, she thought in awe.

"Is your brother home?" She asked casually, the word brother supplying itself from the chaos of memories trying to organize themselves in the pink-haired girl's head.

"J? He won't get home 'til tomorrow," Tsunade said with a frown.

"No, not Jiraiya. Naruto."

"Oh, nah. He's staying the night at Sasuke's," she said with a roll of her eyes. "Doesn't matter if his beloved big sister is finally home... That reminds me, our parents are away for the weekend and J and I are planning on throwing a completely wild party tomorrow night that you should come to."

"Sounds awesome! I'll see if I can make it!" She said as she made her way down the steps.

She trudged back across the green front lawn, cursing her strappy sandals and mentally drawing up a list of comparisons between this teenaged Tsunade to the Godaime. Both appreciated their alcohol, that much was very obvious.

"To Sasuke's?" Gaara queried, twisting the key in the jeep's ignition as she neared.

"How'd you know?" She asked confused, hopping into the passenger seat and snagging her seatbelt.

"Where else would he be?" He said with a shrug of his narrow shoulders.

Neither Haruno Sakura nor Sakura Hardwick had any response to that.

* * *

Sakura rang her third doorbell of the night and shifted her weight from foot to foot. Bored, Gaara spun her car keys around his finger. Footsteps were heard and then the door opened with a squeak to reveal a silver-haired man with a brown eye and a blue eye.

Sakura found herself speechless for the second time in twenty minutes. She stared wide-eyed and made an attempt to burn the image of Kakashi's uncovered (remarkably handsome) face into her mind.

There was an awkward pause and Gaara looked to Sakura to supply an explanation for why they were on Kakashi's porch.

"Hi Mr. Fans, is Sasuke home?" She blurted out.

"Mr. Fans?" He said with amusement. "I'm afraid I'm Sasuke's foster father, Kakashi Hatch."

He proceeded wave off her apology good-naturedly and stepped back to let them in.

"Sasuke's in the kitchen," he said with a smile that had Sakura trying not to blush--he really _was_ good looking. "Down the hall."

Gaara stopped spinning the keys and followed. Perusing her mind, Sakura found that she actually knew very little about Sasuke's personal life in 2007. Naruto's too. But the words 'foster father' were sticking in her memory uncomfortably. Had Itachi murdered the entire family here too?

As she and the quiet Gaara got closer to the small, cosy kitchen, they heard raised voices.

"Nah," Naruto was crowing. "You kiiiiiiissed her and now she's going to want to have your baaaaabies."

"Jealous?" Sasuke said with a smirk, plucking a green grape out of the bowl on the table between them and throwing it at Naruto's head.

The blonde snatched it out of the air and gave his friend a smug look.

"Not in the least," he said, leaning back in his chair and popping the grape into his mouth without taking his eyes off Sasuke's.

The two glared at each other challengingly.

"Uh..." Sakura said, finding herself at a complete loss of what to say.

All she wanted was to just grab her boys and hug them and have the three of them be Team 7 again.

But she knew that to them, now, she was just a girl they knew the name of but hardly spoke to. She had Math with Sasuke and sometimes asked him for help on some of the more difficult questions. That was about it.

This. Was. So. Awkward.

"Gaara? Hey man, how're you?" Naruto said finally, standing up and extending a fist, which Gaara punched in a friendly greeting.

"Kankurou's kid brother, right?" Sasuke threw out, eying the two curiously.

Gaara nodded and looked between them. Then said in a serious tone that implied the very concept of 'hoax' didn't exist (for which Sakura was very grateful): "Guys, you've got to come with us somewhere. There's something you've got to see."

* * *

"You said you wanted to grab Lee too, right?" Gaara asked suddenly.

Sakura looked over at the passenger seat but Gaara was staring straight ahead, just thankful that the pink-haired girl was keeping her driving below the speed limit this time.

"Wanted him for what?" Naruto piped up from the backseat.

"I'll tell you when everyone's together," Sakura said with a cheerful voice that she knew was arousing Sasuke's suspicions. She didn't dare meet his dark eyes in the rear view mirror.

"He lives two blocks from here," the redhead supplied.

After Sakura jerked to a stop in front of an extraordinarily turquoise house, Gaara generously offered to do all the convincing himself.

Something in his voice made the other three look at him strangely, but he didn't notice and he climbed out of the jeep.

"Huh," Sasuke said amusedly.

"Was he...blushing?" Sakura asked, smile playing on her lips.

Naruto burst out laughing as Gaara knocked on the front door of the Rocks' house, which was doing a fine impression of an Easter egg.

"Who would've thought that Goth little Gaara would have a crush on the weirdest kid in school?" Naruto said through a good-natured grin.

Sakura thought back to her future self's sophomore and junior years, when Lee had worn nothing but spandex. The three watched curiously as Lee answered the door and the younger teen twisted his hands behind his back shyly as he talked.

"OF COURSE HE'LL COME HANG OUT WITH YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS!" A voice exploded out from the house. "IT'S A FRIDAY IN THE GLORIOUS SPRINGTIME OF YOUR YOUTH!"

Lee found a twenty stuffed into his hand and then the front door closed firmly behind him.

His ears ringing, Gaara walked back to the jeep where the other three were staring at the house incredulously. At his side, Lee self-consciously ran a hand through his short spiky hair and Sakura once again marvelled at how different he looked without the bowl cut.

"You're dad's kinda weird," Gaara stated. "I like him."

Lee smiled broadly and then gave a jovial wave to the car's other occupants.

* * *

So the new brilliant and not-thought-out-enough plan, of course, led to Gaara and Sakura standing next to the cactus that Sakura had outright parked on this time while about 12 Narutos ran around in a panic, Lee zipped around uncontrollably as just a screaming blur and a spray of sand, and Sasuke flailed as flames burst out of his mouth with every exhale (and had a heart attack every time one of the Narutos got caught in the blast and vanished).

"Well, they're taking it about as well as I did," Gaara said in a deadpan.

"Shut up," Sakura grumbled.

After another minute of incessant terror, Sakura decided to cut them off.

She marched into the centre of the fray and braced herself. When Lee ran past again, she flung out an arm and latched onto his elbow, her strength effortlessly hauling him to a complete stop and sending a wave of sand against her legs.

"NARUTOS! All of you, STOP IT!" She hollered, keeping a firm grip on Lee.

All the clones were stunned into standing still and Sakura noticed that the one between her and Gaara had reacted first. She shifted her grasp on Lee to his wrist and quickly moved to grab onto that Naruto's wrist too, sure he was the real one.

Satisfied that she had them both under control for the meantime, she spun them all so that she was facing Sasuke. She blew a stray strand of pink hair away from her face.

"Sasuke, breathe normally. Stop freaking out," she said firmly.

He eyed her warily and his stance remained tense but he followed her instructions. Soon, the arcs of flames bursting out of him dwindled to small shoots of fire and then finally to puffs of smoke.

Lee and Naruto stared in surprise at the hands latched to their wrists and then looked at each other to confirm their observations: there was a strength in that grip that didn't match up with the body of a skinny teenaged girl.

Gaara wandered closer, his face apathetic and his arms folded against the cool desert air. The t-shirt and mesh undershirt was doing little to keep him warm.

"I thought they'd be able to control sand too," he said curiously.

"No, that was very much a _you_ thing," Sakura said, sparing him a withering glance.

"In my past life?" He supplied.

"Yep," she said in a perky tone that completely juxtaposed the manic atmosphere.

"What...did you do?" Sasuke asked. The question was supposed to come out menacing but coughing on smoke that's curling up your own throat made 'menacing' a hard goal.

"Gave you a watered down version of your strongest abilities in a past life," she said, still chipper.

Inwardly she winced; she was starting to sound like Sai. Maybe she'd start keeping an emotionless smile on her face too. She rolled her shoulders to shake off the image.

"So...in a...past life...I had superspeed, Sasuke breathed fire, and Naruto could copy himself?" Lee haphazardly summarized, not believing the words coming out of his mouth.

Sakura warily released his and Naruto's wrists and opted not to go into defining exactly what the four of them had been capable of _just yet_.

"Basically." She said, stumbling through the sand to where her jeep was still stuck on top of the large cactus.

"What can you do?" Lee asked, turning his attention to Gaara.

Without moving, Gaara summoned a cloud of sand from the ground at his feet and let it purposefully swirl around him. Sakura was impressed at the amount of control the younger teen already had over his ability though she supposed she shouldn't be surprised. She absently wondered if the sand would automatically protect him if Shukaku wasn't present--she doubted it.

"Awesome!" Naruto crowed, eyes glittering. "Are we going to be superheroes?" He asked excitedly, the panic from two minutes ago utterly gone.

Sasuke snorted and noted with pleasure that no smoke came out his nose.

"Something like that. There _is_ a bad guy I need you to help me defeat," she said, taking in the scene of her car with a cringe.

"Why should we believe you're the good guy?" Sasuke asked, shrewd as ever.

She placed one hand under the jeep's bumper and, to the shock of the four boys, casually lifted the whole car up into a forty-five degree angle and rolled it backwards off the crumpled cactus. She glanced over her shoulder and smirked, getting a thrill out of being able to make four guys' jaws drop despite the fact that it wasn't because of her slammin' nice body.

"I don't know about you, Sasuke, but good guy or not, I kind of want to be on the side with the superstrong hot chick," Naruto said, his gaping mouth morphing into a massive grin as he folded his hands behind his head.

"And mentioned bad guy was sent here specifically to kill you while I just gave you the means to defend yourselves," Sakura added with smug satisfaction.

"Kill us?" Lee echoed, a frown spreading over his features.

Sakura nodded seriously. "Which means one thing..."

They looked at her expectantly.

"Sleepover!"

* * *

_Author's Notes_:

Thanks to **Cassidy**, **Black** **Insanity**, **Addy**, **Lazy-Hime**, **Midnight Shining Star**, **RavenMistress**, **NaRuKo77**, and **FREAKSHOW1** for their awesome reviews!

**pAge-bReaTher** - Hmm, I think I can throw in at least a bit of Neji at some point. It might be a little later on though. Thanks for the review!

-Ms Trick


	3. Sekai

**Flick Through III**

Sekai (World)

* * *

_Author_: Ms Trick

_Notes_: I thrive on reviews and cupcakes. I would be honoured to accept either.

* * *

Reno

After a brief debate and digging their toes in the cool sand, Sasuke's house was chosen for the 'sleepover' seeing as he had only one laidback foster father and an absentee brother while Gaara had nosy siblings, Sakura had protective parents, Lee had a father that would be constantly popping in to check that they had the required snacks/refreshments/movies/energy/board games, and Tsunade would never let Naruto live it down if he had a girl stay over.

All four boys winced at Sakura's parking job in front of Kakashi's house. Gaara quietly breathed in a big sigh of relief and tried not to look at Lee too much as Sasuke bypassed the front porch and led them into the garage.

Sakura could make out the shape of a small car in the dark and, being careful to avoid walking into its side mirrors, banged her shin on what her 2007 self assumed was Sasuke's motorcycle--something she had fantasized riding on the back of since he'd bought it last summer.

Sasuke unlocked the door and entered the dimly lit kitchen, with the others following him gingerly. Naruto started flicking on lights and giddily made his way to the fridge. Getting superpowers had put him in a good mood...and made him hungry.

"Sasuke," Kakashi called from the hall. "Are you going out again tonight?"

"No, we'll be staying here," the dark-haired teen called back as he took a seat on the countertop.

"Right. I'm heading up to bed. And Naruto, don't eat the chicken. I need it for tomorrow's dinner."

Gaara and Lee had taken seats at the little kitchen table and were absently picking at the bowl of grapes. Both looked over to see Naruto grumbling and pushing a plate of chicken back into the fridge. Sakura tapped her foot nervously as she listened to Kakashi's lazy footsteps potter up the stairs.

Naruto snagged a pair of chilled apples from a drawer at the bottom of the fridge and then ambled over to leap onto the wide marble countertop next to Sasuke.

"You're kind of like that scientist that explains everything at the end of a superhero movie," Naruto chirped to Sakura through a bite of his apple.

"Start explaining," Sasuke ordered, folding his arms.

"Please," Lee added, shooting Sakura a friendly smile.

In a very concise and intellectual manner (if she did say so herself), Sakura summarized Konoha's history, the definition of a ninja's role in society, the position of Hokage, the concept of chakra, and the basics of ninjustu, taijutsu, and genjutsu. Then, getting to her point, Sakura brought up--

"Wait, wait, wait," Naruto said, waving a hand to cut her off. "Tsunade is the leader of the village?"

"The Fifth Hokage, that's right," Sakura said, tucking a pink strand of hair out of her face. "She's not your sister though, and she's much older. Jiraiya, too."

"Am I older?"

"Actually, you're sixteen."

"Wait, so--"

"Shut up and let her get on with it," Sasuke interrupted, reaching up and pulling Naruto's goggles down over his face.

"So, Tsunade performed a complicated jutsu that allowed me to project my persona and the chakra attached to it to this time, the future."

The blonde got his goggles back on top of his head and gave Sasuke a dark look.

"How is this your future?" Gaara asked, tiredly slumped in his chair. "We can't summon oversized animals or replace ourselves with inanimate objects...and no history book I've read has ever mentioned a Konoha."

Sakura sighed. "From what I can figure, I'm not in my future, I'm in _a_ future. But if this is the dimension Kabuto was sent to, then it's not really an issue."

"Kabuto's the one that got sent here first, correct? The bad guy?" Lee inserted, his hand raised as though he was in class.

"Right. Konoha and the Hidden Village of Sound are currently at war. The leader of the Sound Village, Orochimaru, sent Kabuto into the future to kill the doubles of ninja that could sway the fight in Konoha's favour."

"Looost me," Naruto sung, shoving the second apple into his mouth.

"Uh...me too," Lee chimed.

Sasuke eyed at the apple clenched in the blonde's teeth for a second. He reached out and pulled it out, leaving a large chunk of the red fruit behind for Naruto to chew on. Naruto swiped the back of his hand across the juice splattered on his chin and Sasuke took his own bite.

Sakura clenched a fist and fished out some patience. "Even if this isn't our _future_, it's still a world with many parallels. The theory is that these parallels are sent out like radio waves, meaning that if Kabuto kills people here, the impact could easily ripple back to our world and drastically affect the war."

She exhaled noisily and continued. "Like I said, Tsunade had me project myself into this world and told me I had enough chakra to activate the chakras of only four others...namely, you four."

"Are we going to remember who we were in the other world?" Gaara asked. His calculating, kohl-rimmed eyes appeared even darker in the kitchen's overhead lights.

Sakura clapped her hands together and grinned at them. "_That_ would be why I called a sleepover. Your memories will worm their way from your subconscious minds thanks to the boost of chakra I gave you. You won't _be_ your ninja selves...but my chakra did manifest as your trademark abilities and you should remember how to use them properly thanks to your dreams."

"Your chakra? Oh yeah, the weirdo tattoo. My mom'll kill me for that, by the way," Naruto said, tossing the apple core into the sink and waving his arm in front of him.

Sakura frowned and caught his wrist to get a good look at it. On the exact place she had injected her chakra into him was a small black replica of the Konoha leaf.

"Are all your marks this symbol?" She asked curiously.

"Mine isn't," Gaara said, stretching in his chair and tiredly glancing at the clock on the microwave, which was blinking 8:20 p.m. He squinted at it uncomprehending for a few seconds before realising that it was wrong. Regardless, he was tired.

Sasuke hadn't said much throughout her entire explanation, leaving the shrewd remarks to Gaara and the bombardment of questions to Naruto and Lee. Sakura knew she didn't have his trust yet; the quiet, sombre attitude implied that Sasuke was still collecting data, so to speak, and wouldn't come to a decision about where he stood until a little later on.

"Naruto! We match!" Lee said, enthusiastically getting up and shoving his long green shirtsleeve up to bear his forearm.

He situated himself next to the blonde and the two held out their arms with the palms of their hands facing the ceiling. A puzzled frown was settling onto Sakura's face as she looked down at the twin Konoha emblems.

Gaara slowly ambled over to the other four grouped around the counter, his Converses tiredly dragging over the hardwood kitchen floor. Sakura waited expectantly, already guessing what his mark was. The redhead unfolded his arms, and sure enough, the Suna emblem stood stark on the pale skin of his inner forearm.

Lee reached out and gently cupped Gaara's wrist so as to tilt his arm slightly and bring the tattoo more into his line of sight. Lee ran a hand through his spiky hair as he intently scrutinized the younger teen's arm and completely missed the pink spots blooming quietly on Gaara's cheeks.

Sasuke was still casually sitting on the marble countertop with his arms crossed in front of his chest. The black button down was rolled up to his elbows but he made no move to show off his new tattoo. Then Naruto elbowed him in the side and ignored the dark-eyed teen's glare in favour of getting Sasuke's arm into a position where Sakura could get a proper view.

She reached out to get a firm grip on Sasuke's elbow but froze when she caught a glimpse of a dark, inky sound note plainly visible on the teen's skin.

Her hand lowered and her heart sank with it until she was sure it was lying bare and helpless on the wood floor.

...Maybe recruiting Sasuke hadn't been such a good idea.

* * *

Sakura sat on the comfy couch of Sasuke's living room, sleepy and deep in thought.

Sasuke and Naruto were grabbing extra blankets and pillows from an upstairs linen closet and Gaara and Lee were still chatting in the kitchen.

She felt the weight of what she hadn't told them lie heavy on her shoulders. Regardless of what their dreams would show them, she had neglected to mention that Sasuke wasn't quite on their side in the war of her world.

She wasn't stupid. When she had first arrived in Reno, she had scouted out the situation and joy had swelled in her chest when she found Naruto and Sasuke both alive and healthy and on good terms with one another. She had been initially wary of including the dark-haired teen but the person he was in this world had let her believe that maybe this Sasuke could be trusted.

She had no idea what the sudden appearance of the tattoos implied. But the fact that Sasuke's was the emblem of Sound rather than Konoha's had to mean something.

Naruto dropped the pile of blankets onto the plush carpet in the living room and gave Sakura a grin. Sasuke placed the stack of pillows next to it.

"Y'know, when I look at it I kind of get this warm feeling," Naruto said, eyes fixed on his tattoo. "Like this symbol really means something to me. What about you, Sasuke?"

Sasuke looked down at his for a minute and shook his head. "Don't really feel anything. It's just a mark."

Hope fluttered in Sakura's chest.

"I, too, feel a sense of love for this symbol," Lee said as he wandered in with Gaara.

"Maybe it's just this particular one?" Naruto suggested.

"No, I feel it with mine too," Gaara interjected.

"Why is that, Sakura?" Sasuke asked, genuinely curious as to why he could honestly say that the mark on his arm just looked like a sound note and nothing else.

The pink-haired girl looked up at him with an apologetic smile. "No clue."

Naruto slung an arm around Sasuke's neck and grinned. "Maybe you really are made of stone, Sasuke," he teased.

Sasuke smirked into Naruto's face. "That's me, the Ice Prince of Reno."

Gaara snorted and Lee shrugged.

"I don't get it," he said.

Naruto let go of Sasuke and said, "Let me demonstrate," with a flourish.

He cleared his throat, clasped his hands together and gave Sasuke the biggest googly eyes he could. Then in a breathy, high-pitched voice, said:

"Oh, he's so mysterious! That silky hair I just want to run my hands through! Those dark eyes I could drown in! Those lips that must just be petal soft."

He leaned in close to Sasuke, blue eyes sparkling, and then hopped to Sasuke's left. "Maybe if I ogle him from _this_ side, he'll notice me!"

Sasuke folded his arms and turned his head away, trying not to let his wide smile split into laughter. Naruto flung an arm over his eyes in mock woe.

"And the asshole qualities that do attract me so reveal themselves! I guess my number is too low on the fangirl ranking to even be considered! Maybe...Maybe if I wore a little less?" He said devilishly, slowly dragging up the bottom of his orange shirt and exposing his toned stomach.

Sasuke was still grinning with mirth but his eyes roved over the exposed skin with a completely different intention. Naruto caught the look and his eyes glittered hotly. He let his shirt fall back into place and pirouetted towards his best friend.

"Oh my Ice Prince, take me away in the moonlight! Since I know nothing about you, I've decided you must be my true love!" He clutched onto Sasuke's shoulders and gazed deeply into his eyes, somehow managing to keep a straight face.

"I can see your soul and it radiates like diamonds. The hard, cold gems that you remind me of, you complete jerk!" Naruto finally dropped the breathy, girly voice and laughed hard into the side of Sasuke's arm.

By now, Gaara and Lee were hanging off each other and gasping with laughter. Sasuke had covered his mouth to stifle his own chuckles and even Sakura was laughing, though she realised to some extent that Naruto was making fun of her and her friends.

And suddenly Sakura realised the utter impossibility of this scenario in her world. Her laughter died in her throat and she looked around at the other four teenagers still cracking up.

Could she really do this? Intrude upon the lives of these boys, who were normal and generally happy? Was that fair? She bit her lip and swallowed down a sudden bolt of sadness. There was nothing she could do now. Within a few days, Gaara would remember that he had had to kill people to feel alive; Sasuke would remember the sight of his dead parents and his brother standing over them; Lee would remember being told his dreams had vanished with Gaara's attack; Naruto would remember that his best friend had put a fist through his chest.

The doorbell rang and Sasuke good-naturedly shoved Naruto off him as he went to answer it. Sakura looked at the doorway Sasuke had exited through when a loud voice was heard:

"Wahoo! We are here to _crash_ this party!"

* * *

_Author's Notes_:

Don't worry, hopefully things will keep getting clearer as the story goes on.

Thanks to **wittyying**, **Sue Black**, **ShadowSpirit2**, **pAge-bReaTher**, **Midnight Shining Star**, **NiffStral**, **FREAKSHOW1**, **Black Insanity**, and **RavenMistress** for the reviews AND cupcakes! ;)

**NaRuKo77** – No worries:) Thanks for the review!

**Lazy-Hime **– It'll probably be SasuNaru. Thanks for reviewing!

**gallatica7** – Yeah, I'm not too happy with the last names myself but the part of me that sorts out story logistics just wouldn't have dealt with having them keep Japanese names while being from Nevada. I'm open to any suggestions for ones who are last-nameless right now. And I'm making you my official cliché catcher. If I start sucking, you better let me know. ;)

-Ms Trick


	4. Itazura

**Flick Through IV**

Itazura (Tease)

* * *

_Author_: Ms Trick

_Notes_: I thrive on reviews and cupcakes. I would be honoured to accept either.

* * *

Konoha

Naruto stared sullenly up at the stars from where he lay in the cool grass. The crickets hummed in a constant racket.

_So this is war_, he thought dully as he listened to Kakashi dozing lightly at his side.

He always knew he'd have to participate in at least one war; he was a shinobi after all. But in all his thoughts and fantasies about fighting grand battles, he would attain glory by being better than Sasuke. He hadn't imagined Sasuke would be on the other side. Even now, deeply ensconced in war, he found he constantly had to remind himself that Sasuke was a legitimate enemy.

Not that he'd met Sasuke on the battlefield yet. Their platoon was kept informed of his former team mate's movements and actions, of course, but anything alluding to Sasuke's location had been fastidiously kept away from his ears. He was beginning to suspect Granny Tsunade was up to something.

Naruto sat up, utterly restless and bothered by the noisy insects. Leaving his jacket behind, he crept away from Kakashi's side and mumbled to Yamato, who was acting as their lookout, that he was going to pee. Then he jogged into the dark woods.

And kept jogging. He knew he should stop but the night air felt too electric. He had too much energy and so he just kept jogging until he reached a small glade that was complexly patterned with moonlight and shadows. The grass shone an eerie ice green and the trees appeared crippled and twisted.

Naruto stopped as though this small glade and the figure standing in it had been his goal all along. Maybe, subconsciously, it had been.

Sasuke turned to face him and a breeze meandered lazily through the forest, rustling their hair and sweeping the grass.

"Sasuke..." Naruto grated out.

For a few minutes, nothing was said. Blue eyes remained steady on Sasuke's face while dark eyes trailed down Naruto's right arm, which was tightly wrapped from his fingers to under the shoulder of his black t-shirt in bandages.

Sasuke had heard of the blonde's upgraded and deadly atomic-bomb of a Rasengan. He knew it had destroyed a member of the Akatsuki in one hit. Over the last seven months or so, since the creation of Fuuton-Rasengan Shuiriken in its raw form, Naruto had crafted the move to be somewhat less detrimental to his health. Though from the looks of the bandages, his body still took a tremendous beating every time he was forced into using it.

"You nearly killed Neji," Naruto said gravely, a hint of challenge in his voice. "I'm not going to let you get away with that."

"Hmph," Sasuke said, his tone dismissive and condescending even as his eyes gleamed with an old amusement.

The night had set them both buzzing with energy in need of burning but neither could muster up the will to delve into jutsus or to prod awake sleeping foxes or to summon bloodlines. So they fought hand to hand. And the fight ended predictably. Sasuke's speed brought him forward as the clear winner and Naruto refused to get the memo.

A small scowl made its way to Sasuke's face as he landed a punch that sent Naruto to the ground for the nth time. And again, though winded, Naruto had barely hit the dirt before he was dragging himself back to his feet.

"That's enough games," Sasuke said icily.

When Naruto was back to fully standing, he found Sasuke much too close and with his katana unsheathed. It reminded the blonde of that first meeting after the dark-haired teen's betrayal. He hadn't seen Sasuke in over two years and then suddenly he had been in sight and then suddenly he had been right _there_, close enough to touch. It had been a surprise too knotty for words. But now the surprise was gone and Naruto merely experienced a hot vexation.

A part of Sasuke felt a childish glee over his ability to once again neutralize Naruto's defences so deftly. He still occasionally remembered and felt the worms of insecurity from that year when they were twelve and Naruto's power had sharply increased.

"You're still a Leaf nin, Sasuke," Naruto said with a confident smile, his own blood smeared across his cheeks and chin.

Impassioned, Sasuke weighed his options and kept a cool gaze on Naruto.

This war meant nothing to him. It was Orochimaru's war and Sasuke already had the power he had sought from the snake sannin. Killing him had been the next step planned but the declaration of war had put everyone's projects in a spin. Orochimaru had been forced to do yet another transfer into a predecessor to the body he really craved to slither into--Sasuke's--and Sasuke hadn't had a chance to take his life since preparations for battle had begun six months ago.

Now he was playing the dutiful Sound soldier to keep his position of loyal subordinate believable. But what did it matter to him if Orochimaru or Konoha came out on top of this exaggerated bitch fight? He considered himself on neither side.

If he had to put up with this nuisance of a war, Naruto might as well make a welcome distraction.

"I want a rematch tomorrow night," Naruto declared.

Without responding or even blinking, Sasuke's lips quirked humourlessly. He sheathed his kusanagi sword and vanished.

* * *

Reno

"Kicking your ass, Neji," Kiba muttered happily, his eyes glued to Sasuke's large TV screen and his thumbs aggressively jabbing the buttons of the game controller.

The scruffy teen was leaning forward intensely, a feral look coming over his features. His leather jacket was strewn between him and Neji, who was a direct contrast to Kiba and sitting calmly with his legs crossed. His long, dark hair fell straight down from under the beige bandana he always had tied around his forehead. His brown leather bracelets chafed a little as his fingers worked on the controller.

"Pressing the buttons harder doesn't make you any better at playing," Chouji said from where he was lounging on the floor with a massive bag of chips.

Shikamaru yawned. A small scowl settled on Neji's face as Kiba button-bashed his fighter to victory on the screen.

"Neji, have faith that you will win next time!" Lee called from his comfy spot next to Gaara, who was trying his utmost not to fall asleep (but angling himself so that his head would rest on Lee's shoulder if he did).

The TV flashed a big red "K.O." and the bass-toned commentator announced the winner.

"I am Master!" Kiba crowed, tossing the controller down onto the carpet.

Shino picked it up and slid his dark sunglasses off his eyes and up into his hair. His handsome face smiled and once again, Sakura found herself blatantly staring at the previously unseen face of someone she had known for years.

"Shikamaru?" He questioned, indicating Neji's abandoned controller.

Shikamaru shrugged and scooted towards the screen as Neji tossed off a remark about calling Hana and telling her Kiba was at Sasuke's.

Kiba grimaced, knowing full well that his sister had a bit of a crush on Sasuke (like every other girl that had graduated last year) and wouldn't hesitate to have the excuse to drive over here in her new car.

Sakura was sure she was developing a twitch in her eyebrow. She sat on the couch with her arms crossed and her eyes closed irritably. Chouji was munching away at her feet and Sasuke and Naruto were good-naturedly wrestling next to her. Eventually the sounds of chips crunching, the video game's theme song, and the boys' macho talk combined with the constant jostling just got too much.

She stood up with a huff and stalked out to the hallway. Naruto swore he could see a column of steam rising from her head.

"Why is she here again?" Kiba asked curiously.

Sasuke looked up from where he had Naruto in a headlock and gave a small shrug. "I didn't invite her."

Sakura was halfway to the bathroom before coming to the conclusion that she really didn't have to go. Irritated on both her future and past self's accounts, she spun on her heel and walked back towards the kitchen.

This was wasting valuable time! Kabuto was out there, possibly already hunting people down and what were the good guys doing? Playing Tekken 5 and snuggling. Just great.

Sakura clenched her fists and made her way to the large walk-in pantry. Standing in the dark and surrounded by shelves of junk food and cans, she took three deep breaths. The doors' well-oiled hinges meant that when she heard two others enter the kitchen, she was hidden from view but the wily doors. She turned and reached an arm out to push at the door but stopped when she heard Sasuke's voice.

"You're a tease."

Sakura felt the tiniest shiver run up her spine. She'd never heard Sasuke's voice sound like _that_ before.

Naruto frowned in mock confusion. "What? You mean when I did this?" He asked, eyes on Sasuke's as he coyly dragged his orange shirt up for the second time that night.

Without preamble, Sasuke abruptly put his lips to Naruto's; his hands met the warm skin of the blonde's bare abdomen.

With her face pressed to the crack between the pantry doors, Sakura's eyes widened.

_No way!_ She squealed with glee inside her head, unsure whether that was due to her future self, past self, or the two of them.

Naruto had his back pressed against the smooth door of the fridge and his hands were trailing up Sasuke's arms as the dark-haired teen's hands very casually stroked over the hard muscles of the blonde's stomach. They settled on Naruto's warm hips above the line of his boxers.

After a second, Sasuke broke the kiss with a small sound that found its way to Sakura's ears and made her knees weak. Sasuke was bi. Not only that, Sasuke was bi with Naruto. That was _so_ hot.

"Don't you feel bad at all that you led Karin on?" Naruto said, his eyes open and his hands on Sasuke's shoulders. "You _did_ kiss her."

"Nope."

"You're an asshole."

Sasuke blinked in ersatz injury and slid his thumbs under the waistband of Naruto's boxers. He then slowly pressed into the soft skin under the other's hipbones. Naruto involuntarily arched against the touch and exhaled in a sudden rush from his just-kissed lips.

Sasuke smirked and added a little more pressure to the familiar sweet spot. Naruto's legs unconsciously opened a little further, his thighs grazing Sasuke's and causing Sasuke to swallow a little.

"You don't seem to mind," he said smugly, leaning in and capturing Naruto's lips again.

"What's gotten into you?" Naruto asked with sincerity after a few soft seconds of kissing. "You never get this touchy-feely unless you're annoyed about something."

Sasuke sighed quietly, a little of the irritation Naruto had sensed making itself clear.

Naruto was on the verge of inquiring as to whether it was about their new superpowers and the rather strange situation Sakura had gotten them into. But then he figured it would be a bad idea to remind Sasuke that he could breathe fire right when his face was less than a few inches from his own.

"I kept count this semester," Sasuke stated. "I've fucked seven people and only one of them made me come."

Sakura's face burst into a blush. This was juicy gossip! She quashed the glee she felt as Sakura Hardwick and wondered if it was at all possible to escape the kitchen unnoticed. It wasn't quite as disappointing as she imagined when she realised she couldn't.

Meanwhile, Naruto counted on his fingers and frowned. "I've only got six."

"You forgot Tayuya."

"Right."

"I'm just...tired of all the people who don't know how to get me off or worse, don't bother, because the _sex god_ is expected to do all the work."

"Poor little sex god..." Naruto said with a snicker.

Sasuke hit him with a glare at close range and Naruto gave him a gentler smile.

"No, I get it, I get you...Who got you off?"

"Sai."

Naruto nodded thoughtfully for a second and then his eyes glittered. "Quicker than me?"

"No one gets me off quicker than you," Sasuke confirmed in a deadpan.

Naruto grinned triumphantly into Sasuke's face.

Sakura felt like she was about to explode or topple a shelf or giggle uncontrollably or something along those lines. She fanned herself, an action that belonged to Reno's Sakura, and wondered how much longer she would last.

She was saved by the sound of the front door opening.

The two teens in the kitchen pulled apart languidly and Sasuke frowned.

"Itachi?" Naruto guessed.

"Has to be," Sasuke said a little tensely.

As they left to see who was in the front hall, Sakura hurriedly searched the memory of her future self to see what she knew of Itachi, all feeling of giddy excitement leaving her in a dash.

As far as she could tell, Itachi was older than Sasuke by at least four or five years as Sasuke used to ride on the back of _his_ motorcycle when they were in middle school. Ironically, he had to wear glasses--once, in the hallway outside the science rooms, she had overheard Sasuke commenting on how Itachi was nearly legally blind without them.

She tried to ignore the cold trepidation she felt at the older Uchiha's sudden appearance and quietly crept out of the pantry.

* * *

"Yo, 'Roch, you still wearing fucking make-up?"

"No, I was born with natural purple eyeliner."

"And an innate sense of sarcasm."

"Ah, baby brother! Was wondering if you were still up."

"Don't be so loud. Kakashi's asleep."

"Oh yeah?"

"You are _not_ allowed molest our foster father in his sleep."

Sakura made her way slowly down the hall towards the noisy living room, dragging a hand on the wallpaper and trying to keep her heart rate steady.

Chouji stuck his head out of the TV room's transparent double doors.

"What's going on?"

"Itachi's home," she said automatically.

"Nice."

He retreated to the company of the others and she continued towards the large living room at the front of the house, which was decked out with several cushy couches and another TV. The walls were lined with a couple of bookcases and two ceiling fans swished lazily overhead.

When Sakura finally eked into the room, her mind went into overdrive and zipped from face to face, labelling and categorizing.

Itachi was easy to recognize; even with the glasses, he resembled Sasuke. And he was smirking at his little brother in a manner that could only belong to an older sibling. He was dressed completely in black and Sakura noted that his fingernails were an odd silvery purple.

The platinum blonde in a shirt that said 'God Is My HomeBoy' would have to be Hidan. Sakura had thoroughly studied the report on Shikamaru's defeat of him and a picture had been included.

The one in sunglasses and jeans she easily identified as Deidara, who had managed to abduct Gaara. Relaxing comfortably under his arm was a slim, rather sullen redhead.

Her eyes lingered on Sasori and vivid memories of her killing him slid through her mind.

And, of course, Orochimaru, who still resembled a snake with his long hair and pasty skin. Albeit, a teenage snake with an earring dangling from one ear and headphones around his neck.

Her entrance caught their attention and Sakura felt a trickle of fear freeze her spine as she wordlessly took in the sight of Akatsuki members lounging around. She blatantly didn't look at Orochimaru. She didn't want to see him or think about him because she could _never_ consider him the innocent civilian he was in Reno.

But while these were some of the most evil, powerful people in the shinobi world, here they were just asshole teenagers. With their current levels, she could take all of them at once if she wanted to. This thought settled her nerves somewhat but her legs still distinctly felt like dead weight.

"Um...sorry," she stuttered out embarrassingly before spinning on her heel and striding away. She found herself in the dining room across the corridor and she slumped against the large mahogany table with a shaky breath.

Belatedly, she noted that not all the Akatsuki members had been present. Her Reno personality supplied that maybe they weren't home from college yet. Her eyes meandered over the army of photos hung on the walls and lining the shelves and the mantelpiece. Though this was Kakashi's house, many of the pictures were of Sasuke and Itachi and Naruto.

Fascinated and in need of a distraction, she moved closer for a better look and only then noticed that Naruto had been standing just inside the door. Wait, but hadn't she seen him head back to play a round of Tekken 5 with Shino?

"Practicing with your clones?" She asked, amused.

He grinned and came to stand at her side in front of the multitude of photos.

"It's fun being in two places at once. I think I'll send in a clone to take my last final exam and spend my time on the beach instead."

"You know when it disperses, you gain its experience automatically."

"Really? That's awesome!"

He followed her gaze to a photo that featured him, Sasuke, and Hinata in formal wear. He was in the middle, an arm thrown around Sasuke's shoulders while he hugged Hinata to his chest. Sasuke appeared a little annoyed and Hinata had a small smile on her face. He was grinning like an idiot as usual.

"Heh, yeah, that was junior prom. I took Hinata as my date but she seemed more interested in hanging out with her friends and Neji. I kind of get the feeling she doesn't really like me all that much," Naruto said thoughtfully, oblivious to the gobsmacked Sakura.

Hinata _not_ in love with Naruto? ...go figure.

"Is this Sasuke's family?" She asked softly, her fingers brushing the wooden frame of another picture. "Wait, yours too, right?"

Naruto eyed the group of people in the picture for a moment. "Yeah."

The photo's occupants seemed to be standing in a backyard. Sasuke's mother, Mikoto, was smiling warmly at the camera, a hand on the young Sasuke's shoulder. On her left, her husband and eldest child both had the same bored appearance. On her right was who had to be Naruto's mother, a woman who appeared a few years younger than Mikoto with short, brown hair. Naruto was holding her hand and simultaneously elbowing Sasuke and waving at the photographer. Tsunade was in pigtails and was being prevented from throwing a punch at Jiraiya by a tall man with unruly blond hair.

Wait a minute.

"I think we were eight when that picture was taken," Naruto supplied, watching in confusion as the pink-haired girl gave a start.

She snatched up the framed photo and peered at it intently before confirming that it was the Yondaime with a sense of awe--could this be true in Konoha too? Could her loud, orphaned team mate really be the Fourth Hokage's son? But where was his mother? Who had the Yondaime's wife been?

"Naruto, what's your mom's name?" Sakura asked, curiosity making her vivacious.

"Well, she's half-Japanese so her last name used to be Uzumaki. Her first name's Rin. Why?"

* * *

_Author's Notes_:

Thanks so much to **FREAKSHOW1** and **Lazy-Hime**!

**RavenMistress** – Better:P

**wittyying** – I'm glad I'm making you think. Hehe. Thanks for the review.


	5. Yokoyari

**Flick Through V**

Yokoyari (Interruption)

* * *

_Author_: Ms Trick

_Notes_: I thrive on reviews and cupcakes. I would be honoured to accept either.

* * *

Konoha

During the two days following their first midnight scuffle, Sasuke and Naruto put all their energy into battling enemy shinobi, keeping an eye out for one another all the while. Both knew that the odds of them meeting on the battlefield were high and both of them had noticed that it hadn't happened yet. Neither was sure who was pulling the strings though. Was Tsunade trying to protect Naruto? Or was Orochimaru trying to toy with Sasuke? Or was it both?

Under the sun, the war raged angrily. Arcs of red splattered the ground over and over, and countless bodies fell with lifeless thuds. It was a sound Naruto still couldn't get used to, even if it was an enemy's falling. Even if he was the one that caused it.

The sound of death haunted him. The sight meant nearly nothing. After all, he'd seen gallons of blood pour out of shinobi who would then continue to fight and live. And then he'd seen full grown jounin fall with only a thin scratch of red to show for it. Comrades thought to be dead on impact were revealed to be substitutes or shadow clones. But the sound of a dead body hitting the ground was infinitely more identifiable and hopeless than a shinobi being felled because of injury. The silence after was always loud. And so those hopeless thuds repeated and echoed in Naruto's head even while his eyes played tricks on him.

But Sasuke's eyes were different. Sasuke had a birthright that allowed him to instantly see through tricks, to record all images no matter how bloody and replay them perfectly. He could see the exact moment when the blue glow of a ninja's chakra dimmed. He could see _exactly_ how lifeless a dead body really was. Sometimes he wished he couldn't.

So under the cover of night, the two of them scrapped like frustrated schoolchildren and both relished in the fact that here, at least, was one fight they wouldn't have to end with a kill.

Sasuke also liked the ego boost when he won a brawl. Meanwhile Naruto was beginning to grow unbearably frustrated at his lack of power. If he admitted it to himself, he could _almost_ understand why people...why Sasuke would go to wild lengths for power.

In the middle of throwing kicks and dodging Sasuke's right hook, Naruto wondered if Sasuke had felt like this when Itachi had effortlessly snapped his wrist.

That night, Naruto won the brawl for the first time, much to Sasuke's shock.

* * *

Reno

After consuming fifteen varieties of snacks and playing at least fifty matches on Tekken 5 (and _after_ Itachi's friends had all left), Kiba and his gang _finally_ called out their goodbyes, groaning with exhaustion as they did so. It was three in the morning. Sakura was about to murder someone.

They all crashed in the television room. Sasuke and Naruto crawled into plush sleeping bags placed next to each other near the game consol. Before finding his own spot on the floor, Lee had lifted the fast-asleep Gaara onto the couch. The redhead hadn't even stirred.

Sakura curled up on the carpet with a pillow and blanket. The last thought she had before dropping into slumber was how odd it was that an insomniac in one world was such a heavy sleeper in another.

A fitful four hours of sleep later, Sakura found herself wide awake. She sat up quickly and looked around to see how the four guys were doing after a night of their minds being bombarded with a continuous stream of memories.

Brushing aside Sakura Hardwick's mortification at sleeping in her clothes and the lack of a shower and the state her hair must be in, she clambered to her feet unsteadily and glanced around the room. Gaara lay like a corpse on the couch. Naruto was still snoring loudly and Sasuke was curled on his side. The only one missing was Lee.

She made her way to the kitchen and first thing, glanced at the clock on the microwave...which she realised was blatantly wrong.

"Good morning, Sakura," said a tired but cheery voice. "I believe the correct time is 7:13. Would you like some coffee?"

She gave him a small smile. "Yes, please."

Lee was still in his clothes from yesterday too but it looked like he'd showered. His short hair, gelled up in spikes yesterday, now hung messily around his head. He looked a little more like the Lee Sakura knew now. He bustled around quietly, locating mugs, coffee, filters, and the coffee maker in the morning light.

"Hey..." She started, hesitantly. "How were your dreams?"

Lee stopped trying to figure out the machinations of the coffee maker for a minute and looked at her.

"Not...as bad as I assumed they would be," he said finally.

The way he said it, Sakura knew he was being honest.

"Yeah?" She prompted gently as he returned to his task. "What did you learn? Do you have any questions?" _...or accusations? or angry demands for why she was forcing him to do this?_ She added silently.

"I dreamt of Neji and TenTen. My team mates," Lee said, some affection for them warming his voice.

Sakura dug through what her future self knew about Team Gai's relationships here. She was on relatively close terms with TenTen and so knew all about how she had used to date Neji. He'd broken up with her half-way through junior year to focus on his studies. Lee was a good friend of Neji's and so the three of them had hung out a fair amount before the break up.

"I do have a question though, Sakura," Lee said, interrupting her thoughts.

She slowly took a seat at the kitchen table, waiting patiently for him to continue while anxiously wondering if Lee remembered his match against Gaara yet.

"If my dreams are correct, Neji is...was stronger than I. Why didn't you choose him over me? Or, why not Kakashi? He was your teacher, right? Wasn't he one of the most famous ninja in the village?"

"It's a little complicated. Even though I've always found it easy to control my chakra, I don't have as much of it as I'd like," Sakura admitted. "Because Kakashi's levels are so much higher than mine, it would have taken more of my chakra to activate him. So I probably wouldn't have been able to activate four people, which is what I wanted. And then, I couldn't enlist Neji because the Hyuuga style of softboxing requires the user to release chakra directly from skin. In Konoha, their bodies are built for this but here, it would damage their bodies. Probably rip the skin."

Both grimaced at the visual.

"But it's fine for Sasuke to breathe fire?" Lee asked as he poured the dark, steaming coffee into two blue mugs.

"Well, some thing's had to be risked," she said. Her thoughts flickering uncomfortably to the small fact that Sasuke wasn't quite on their side anymore.

Lee suddenly chuckled and Sakura stared at him, curious.

"I remembered that ninja-me was a Drunken Fist fighter...Do you know how Neji and I became friends?" He asked, approaching the table and handing her a mug.

She shook her head and listened expectantly as the steam from the hot coffee washed over her.

"Our status as bad drinkers," Lee supplied cheerily as he sat down. "Neji's always the designated driver because alcohol knocks him out. Literally. A sip puts him to sleep. And I become ridiculously rowdy, as I'm sure you know."

Sakura found that she did. At Ino's huge Hallowe'en bash last year, Lee had had his first taste of alcohol and the damage he'd done had been incredible. She remembered Ino bitching about it for weeks even after Lee had paid for everything.

"So to save our dignities, we just spend parties hanging out with each other," he finished with a short laugh.

Sakura smiled and blew on her drink. But before she could take one sip of it, a distressed cry came from the TV room. Their smiles dropped off their faces and they both plunked their mugs down hurriedly. Coffee sloshed onto the table unnoticed as the two tore from the room.

They burst into where the others were sleeping and were forced to pause for a few seconds. The curtains were drawn to keep out the sunny morning and in the darkness, neither could tell who the cry had come from. As their eyes adjusted, a strangled whisper escaped Gaara.

Lee and Sakura both rushed to the side of the couch. The redhead seemed to be panicking in his sleep and Sakura felt guilt slam its weight into her when she saw him clutching and clawing at his chest through the t-shirt he was sleeping in.

"Gaara!" Lee exclaimed.

He hurriedly grabbed the younger teen's slim shoulders and shook him hard. Gaara crashed into the world of the waking with tear tracks running wetly from the sides of his eyes into his hair and his breaths coming in choked gasps.

Kohl-rimmed, pale green eyes snapped open and Gaara latched onto Lee's arms instinctively. The dark-haired teen still had his hands on Gaara's shoulders but the grip had loosened considerably. Gaara was visibly shaking but slowly he sat up.

Sakura took an unsteady step backwards, her eyes wide with guilt and a frightened sadness. _It was like he was trying to rip his own heart out_, she thought.

Gaara looked at Lee as though seeing him for the first time and a desperate guilt crossed his pale face.

"I..." he started in a whisper, his hands releasing Lee's arms in sudden fright.

Lee immediately crushed the shaking redhead to his chest and wrapped his arms around his shoulders.

"You haven't done a thing," Lee stated assertively. "Gaara Sands. You haven't done a thing to me."

Sakura knew then that Lee had indeed been delivered the memories of his match against the redhead in the chuunin exams. But as he had done in her world, Lee had found the strength to put it behind him.

Shocked and indescribably grateful, Gaara buried his face in the older teen's shoulder, his arms hugging him tight.

A small measure of happiness came over Sakura. _This_ was why she had chosen Lee above potentially stronger ninja. Because his forgiving, energetic, persevering nature would not only get him through this agony, but probably get the others through too.

She felt her eyes burning hotly and she turned to wake the other two, determined that this was enough for one night. She made her way to the pair of sleeping bags and only then noticed that Naruto wasn't there.

Sakura gaped and instinctively looked around the room. Not finding him, of course, she looked to see Sasuke's sleeping form. He had curled in on himself, his hands cradling his head as though he were physically getting injured by his dreams.

She reached a hand out but before she even touched him, he suddenly sat up ramrod straight. The sleeping bag was kicked aside and Sasuke, taking no notice of the absent Naruto or anyone present, bolted from the room.

"Sasuke!" Said a startled Sakura.

She spared a glance at the two on the couch and then followed him. She heard harried footsteps going upstairs and then the bang of a bedroom door being yanked open. Cautiously, she climbed the stairs after him.

"Sasuke?" She heard a tired but concerned voice say.

Sakura hesitated and lingered on the top steps, the dim light of the hallway's curtained window casting shadows around her. She heard the sound of bed sheets rustling as someone climbed out of bed. And then the soft oomph of an unexpected hug.

"Itachi..." came Sasuke's muffled voice as he clung to his brother.

"Jeez, you're really fucking freaked out. What the hell did you dream ab..." Itachi stopped in realisation. When he spoke again, his voice had shifted from that of a somewhat amused older sibling to a gentler, quieter tone. "Was it about Mom and Dad?"

Sakura heard a bedroom door further down the hallway open and then soft footsteps padding towards the two brothers in Itachi's bedroom.

"Everything alright?" Kakashi asked as he entered.

There was a pause where Sasuke just hugged Itachi harder. Then Itachi mumbled, "Yeah. I think we're okay."

There was a pause and then Kakashi offered, "...I could get one of my books."

A snort escaped Itachi and, to Sakura's surprise, Sasuke too seemed to be laughing.

"Thanks Kakashi," Sasuke said, sounding comforted if still a little shaky. "But I think I'm okay without you having to read me porn."

"Really?" Kakashi said in that thoughtful, ditzy voice Sakura knew so well. It was the voice he always used when he had a fresh excuse for why he was hours late. "When you got scared as a kid, reading Icha Icha Paradise always calmed you down and put you right back to sleep."

"I do wonder what the long-term effects of you reading porn to get rid of nightmares will be," Itachi said with a chuckle.

"Hey, anyone would fall asleep if it was the only way to get out of listening to that stuff," Sasuke joked, sounding more like himself again.

This was a side of Sasuke that had ceased to exist in her world, Sakura thought, her heart clenching in her chest.

Sasuke was always strong. As a ninja. As a person. He never allowed himself appear weak in mind or spirit or body. But here, in Reno, he had people he was allowed be weak with, he had family. Even if that family consisted only of a pervert with an eye patch and a distant older brother, it was _something_. In her world, Sasuke had no one.

* * *

Sakura slowly walked out into Sasuke's large backyard, her feet bare but warm on the cool stone patio. A dry zephyr breezed through the warm morning air. She chewed on her lower lip and made her way to the charming wooden bench positioned on the border between the patio's grey slates and the carpet of green grass.

She sat down and a sob burst out of her. She covered her mouth and the tears spilled out. She didn't want to do this, she thought miserably. She knew she had to because of war, a war these boys had never volunteered to participate in. Remembering herself agreeing readily to Tsunade's plans, Sakura suddenly felt disgusted with the reasoning behind her actions.

She went to pull her knees to her chest but found her boobs to be unexpectedly in the way. Frustration suddenly fuelled the sobs as much as guilt.

She _hated_ that she felt so clumsy and uncomfortable in her body. She wasn't eighteen. She didn't feel eighteen and it obviously didn't fit her.

"Uh-oh, was Sasuke an asshole?" Came a worried voice.

Sakura looked up to find Naruto standing at her side. Embarrassed, she hurriedly began wiping away the wetness on her cheeks and pressing the heels of her hands into her eyes.

"No," she said, taking some deep breaths to steady herself. "No. It's fine. It's...it's my fault."

"Heh," Naruto laughed wryly. "I'm pretty sure that when Sasuke's an asshole, it's all because of Sasuke."

"No, he wasn't...He didn't take his dreams, uh, his memories too well. Not that I blame him..."

Naruto was quiet for a second and sat down at Sakura's side, sprawling out on the bench.

"It was about his parents, right?" Naruto guessed. "It's the only thing he's ever had nightmares about."

Sakura nodded in understanding, though she knew memories of Sasuke's parents weren't the only ones that were going to be volatile. Then she asked in a quiet, nervous voice, "Did Itachi kill them?"

"...Yeah."

Catching the look of horror on Sakura's face, Naruto yelped, "Not, y'know, on purpose! Itachi was driving and their parents were in the car and they crashed. Itachi's not a villain or anything. ...He was in the hospital for like a week, too. But he and Sasuke are not, like, complete orphans. I mean, they've got some family in Japan and money and stuff...they just wanted to stay here instead of going back to Japan."

As Naruto babbled, Sakura felt like her veins had turned to lead. And though she had been frustrated at the size of her body a minute before, she suddenly felt how very small she really was, how much bigger the universe was.

Despite her monstrous strength, there would always be mountains she couldn't move. Something bigger than her was pulling the strings of a million different fates, including hers. And no matter how strong or knowledgeable she got, she would always be human and would always be helpless in the face of past tragedies. She could only watch and marvel, like the rest of the human race, at the small twists of circumstance that could strengthen or destroy people depending on the day.

"I have something to ask you. About ninja-Sasuke actually," Naruto said, anxious to change the conversation topic.

She tensed slightly.

"My dreams were mostly of my childhood and of being on Team 7--which was kinda cool--but right before I woke up, I got this really clear image of Sasuke and me when we were uh, sixteen I think. It was probably during the war you were talking about. We were fighting and he had a sword." He looked at her. "Sakura, he's...not on our side, is he?"

Sakura's gaze lowered to the ground. "No," she whispered.

Naruto frowned. "But Sasuke's not evil, right? There's no way. He's a bastard most of the time but evil? No way!"

"Well, he's not really _evil_," she inserted quickly. "It's complicated. He's kind of on a solo revenge mission and will do almost anything to complete it."

"Like be on the bad guy's side," Naruto supplied gloomily.

"Do you...remember him leaving the village?" Sakura inquired, nervous.

Naruto frowned. "I don't think so."

"You don't," Sakura said firmly, temporary relief blossoming in her chest. "You'd know if you did, trust me."

"Why? Was it dramatic and scandalous?" Naruto asked with a cheeky smile.

Sakura looked away again and Naruto's smile faded.

"Ah. Sasuke was an asshole then."

When Sakura didn't respond, Naruto tucked his hands behind his head and just kept babbling.

"But like I said, that's just Sasuke. I don't know if you were in school the day he and I got into that fist fight in the middle of the cafeteria. I was pissed off because he had been kinda awful to Temari. Or how about in middle school? He didn't talk to me for almost a whole year and only hung out with Suigetsu and Jyuugo and I still don't really know why. It's not like he ever gives explanations. I mean, he really _is_ one of the biggest jerks I know."

Sakura whipped around and Naruto was surprised to see that her eyes were red.

"_Then why are you friends with him?_" She demanded, upset.

Naruto blinked. "'Cause being friends doesn't mean you're always nice to each other or sometimes even like each other, it just means accepting the person for who they are--all parts of them. And even if Sasuke's a jackass, he's got a lot of good in him too. But that's everybody, isn't it? I mean, there's no one that's just a completely bad person through and through."

Sakura's watery gaze blurred further and she raised her hands to her face to try and mop away the tears again. "You don't change, Naruto," she said with a happy laugh. "You're the exact same. Sasuke's hurt you over and over in my time and you _still_ consider him your best friend."

Naruto awkwardly patted her shoulder and cracked a grin. "That's me. Or I guess, that's me and Sasuke."

"Are you...a couple?" She asked, unable to resist.

Naruto gave an abashed laugh and scratched the back of his head. "No, we're...I don't know what we are. Uh, best friends who occasionally make out and who sometimes can't stand each other to the point of violence? It's weird."

"I get that," Sakura said honestly, thinking of the strange relationship of her team mates back at home.

"I'm not even gay. I actually thoroughly like girls," Naruto confessed. "It's just when it's Sasuke, it's like I'm not anything anymore."

"How'd it start?" Sakura asked, unwittingly playing the part of Sakura Hardwick.

Naruto smiled a little and when he made to answer, Sakura felt a wave of delight hit her courtesy of her 2007 self's curiosity.

"I guess when we were fourteen, back when, um, Sasuke's parents were still alive."

A pensive silence threatened to settle but Naruto cheerfully ploughed through it.

"Anyway, Sasuke's parents and mine took us all to Las Vegas for a long weekend in the middle of summer. Itachi, Tsunade, and Jiraiya went off by themselves and our parents went off somewhere else, so it was just me and Sasuke most of the time. And our last night it was so hot and humid and dark and we were so tired from just wandering around--'cause at fifteen, we couldn't get into _anything_, obviously. And he stumbled a little and put his hand on my shoulder to catch himself and I turned and...I don't know, he just pushed me a little and I was against the wall and we were kissing..." Naruto interrupted himself with a wry laugh. "Ah shit, I'm...probably in love with the bastard."

Sakura Hardwick was floating on a pink OMG romantic! cloud of joy. Meanwhile Haruno Sakura stared at her friend in something close to awe for a minute.

"Yeah," she finally said. "Go figure."

* * *

_Author's Notes_:

For the wonderful reviews and cupcakes, loads of thanks to: **Luna**, **Lazy-Hime**, **blue-nuriel**, **wittyying**, **lonelylulaby**, **naruto14**, **xXRealizationDawnsXx**, **a sasunaru fan**, **Sep**, **FREAKSHOW1**, **iamNOTafangirl3221**, **SlippingSanity**, **psalmofsummer**, **YumiAngel**, **Fyawkes**, **dgh65**, **Leo**, **Wolf-in-Sheep-Clothing**, **DarkRavie**, and **DramaQueen1193**

**Regalty** – Thanks so much for the cookie and the review! Hopefully future chapters won't disappoint!

**gallatica7** – You're a peach, o cliché-catcher. :)

**Lemon Drops** – I think I'm okay without a beta for now but I really do appreciate critiquing reviews. I know what you mean about rushing and I'll definitely do my best to improve on that. THANKS SO MUCH!

**Makayla** – Well, even bad cupcakes are good by definition. ;) Thanks so much for all those reviews!

As always, loads of thanks to everyone who comments on LiveJournal and too!


	6. Odoroki

**Flick Through VI**

Odoroki (Wonder)

* * *

_Author_: Ms Trick

_Notes_: I thrive on reviews and cupcakes. I would be honoured to accept either.

* * *

Konoha

Sasuke was sullen the entire day. He spoke even less than usual, which set the other Sound ninja on edge. And they steered well clear of his vicious presence in battle.

A glittering volley of shuriken and kunai rained into the dirt with decisive thunks, obliterating the pair of footprints Sasuke had vanished out of mere seconds before. He dodged every weapon summoned from every scroll and whipped bombs out of his vicinity with flicks of his wrist before then slamming a fist into the stomach of his opponent.

She flew backwards and landed in a painful heap on the dusty ground, spitting up a mouthful of blood. She had barely raised herself onto her elbows before the chilling edge of Sasuke's katana came to a lazy rest on the pale skin of her jugular.

TenTen looked up and bared her teeth defiantly under Sasuke's empty gaze. His dark eyes were glazed over and she prepared herself for her final moments. Unexpectedly, there was an extended pause where TenTen tensed and Sasuke seemed to be...staring into space?

"It was a fluke," he mumbled vaguely.

_Fluke? What was a fluke?_ TenTen thought, frowning in question up at her opponent.

It was then she noticed with some outrage that Sasuke wasn't even concentrating on their battle! He had just defeated her while his mind was on a completely different planet. She scowled at the offence in a manner that implied the other ninja had stood her up on a date rather than a deathbed.

His thoughts still anywhere but there, Sasuke absently returned his katana to the sheath at his back. Then, leaving TenTen and the other Sound ninja to stare at each other in surprise, he meandered away from his victory.

"It was definitely because of a fluke that he won," he repeated to himself in quiet confidence, before again demonstrating the speed he was known for and disappearing.

For the next two nights, Sasuke reaffirmed his conclusion by beating his rival into the dirt. But just when he thought he could permanently lay Naruto's triumph to rest at the feet of luck, the very next night Naruto won again.

Even as the Hokage-wannabe crowed and rubbed it in Sasuke's face and even as Sasuke's jealous fury reared its dangerous head, at the back of both of their minds the same thought was brewing: What would happen when they met in battle during daylight?

* * *

Reno

After the relatively life-juddering morning, Saturday merely continued at its usual lumbering pace, soccer game and all.

They had decided to split up for the day because despite the time restraints and despite learning about some horrific moments in their past lives, there were still tedious, unavoidable tasks to complete; Sasuke had groaned that after the game, he and Itachi had appointments with their eye doctor, Lee had a room to clean, Gaara had to pick his uncle up from the airport, and Naruto had been roped into grocery shopping for his siblings' party.

That very party would make for a good excuse for their unique group to crash under the same roof for another night, as Naruto had assured them that half of Tsunade and Jiraiya's guests would pass out on their property anyway. And Sakura had to admit she was worn out; a party would do her some good.

She stared lethargically out of her bedroom window for a few minutes and then glanced at the clock. When her 2007 aspect noted with a start that she'd have to start getting ready _now_, Sakura let herself just be Sakura Hardwick. It's not like she could really do anything until after the party anyway.

Excitement and anticipation grew as she fussed over and changed her clothes. She was SO going to wear red. And she was SO going to wear those black slingback heels...as soon as she could find the other one. She frowned and paused her activity to scan her messy bedroom floor for her shoe's partner. Then she remembered accidentally kicking it into the space under her large chest of drawers.

She crouched down in her red dress and peered under, huffing when she realised that her precious shoe was too far back in a crevice too small for her arm to fit. She grinned to herself, placed a hand underneath the dresser, and with little effort raised it about a foot off the ground. She then reached forward with the other hand, plucked up the runaway heel, and lowered the large piece of furniture gently back down.

Superstrength ROCKED!

* * *

Tsunade was the funniest person _ever_, Sakura concluded, clutching her stomach with one hand and trying not to spill her drink with the other as she laughed her head off as only a tipsy teenage girl could.

"No! I'm not done!" Tsunade, her cheeks flushed red from the alcohol, cried out as she waved at Sakura gleefully. "So after...after I _finally_ get our dog away from this mutant fat squirrel _thing_, I realize that I've forgotten a leash! Because I _never_ bring one when I take Gamabunta for walks in the reservation...and so I spend, like, ten minutes wondering what I can use in the fucking_forest_ as a makeshift leash and finally _finally_ end up walking my dog out of the reservation...with my bra."

Hysterical laughter burst from Sakura's mouth and she covered it, eventually choking out, "You actually attached the bra to Gama?"

"And I held the other end."

"Oh my god!"

To make themselves heard over the loud bass techno pulsing through the entire house, they were both half-screaming. Even though the speakers were in the living room and Sakura and Tsunade were in the foyer, the entire first floor of their house was a full circle. As such, the music travelled well. It was a ring of rooms; the foyer connected to the TV area which connected to the kitchen which connected to the computer room which connected to the living room which connected back to the foyer.

Some would swear the walls were vibrating but no one was complaining.

The entire house was crowded beyond belief and the noise level kept rising until the two girls actually had to scream to hear each other. After a sentence or two, they dissolved into more giggles and merely raised their plastic cups in defeat before taking gulps of beer. Sakura finished hers with a sigh and leaned backwards until her back rested against the arch between the foyer and the TV area.

A short squeal of happiness escaped Tsunade and she bounced up and down, her eyes on the front door. Sakura took a second to wish her boobs were that big and that she could pull off the short, slinky blue thing the elder girl was wearing before also turning her attention that way.

_The Akatsuki have come to party_, Sakura thought drunkenly. _I wonder if they like to party this much in Kono--Sasori's a girl here?_

She squinted disbelievingly through the din. But sure enough, the puppeteer Sand ninja was a petite woman in a tiny skirt and boots up to her knees. Sakura hadn't noticed the gender switch before as she'd only glimpsed Sasori in baggy clothes. And let's face it, even in the world of ninja Sasori had made an exceptionally pretty boy.

Deidara was at her side, resting a toned arm possessively over her shoulder while he blew some stray blond hair out of his eyes. Behind the couple, Hidan appeared with his own girlfriend at his side. Sakura squinted at the orange-haired girl but didn't recognize her.

"Roch!" A voice yelled in greeting over the music.

To make his way to the new-comers, Jiraiya was wading through the crowd swinging their hips and raising their cups and dancing in the living room and foyer. He had sunglasses on despite being inside and his short, peroxide-white hair stuck straight up in gelled spikes. He slapped hands with Orochimaru, whose long hair had been pulled back in a loose ponytail, revealing his wicked earring. Then he exchanged slightly less-familiar greetings with the rest of Orochimaru's gang, whom Sakura assumed he didn't know quite as well.

"Yo, J! Where's Itachi?" Orochimaru hollered.

"No clue!" Jiraiya hollered back. "Last I saw him, he was in the kitchen doing shots!"

Sakura turned around to say something to Tsunade but found the older girl had vanished into the moving, grinding, drinking mass. She then scanned the area near the front door and found her blonde friend swaying on her feet to the music near the smirking, teenaged Orochimaru. She grinned flirtatiously into his face and Sakura decided a little queasily to stop watching.

She noted her empty cup with displeasure and, stumbling only slightly, began making her way through the crowded TV area. She barely got half-way across the room when she got caught by Naruto, who grabbed her arms playfully and pulled her around in a dance. The multi-coloured disco lights that splattered the ceiling were reflected in the goggles strapped to his head despite his golden hair being gelled spikier than it already was.

"You and Jiraiya have the same hair!" She yelled with a laugh.

"What?" He yelled back, his ears filled to the brim with music and nothing else.

She shook her head good-naturedly to show it wasn't important and then gestured in the direction of the kitchen with her empty cup. Naruto nodded in understanding, spun her around once more and then gave her a light-hearted push towards her destination. Sakura had to weave through the TV room's pair of couches and rolled her eyes when she spied Shikamaru sitting on one of them, with Ino sitting on _him_.

Ino was in purple, as usual, her favourite colour. She tucked a short strand of hair behind her ear as her mouth moved against Shikamaru's. Neither of them noticed when Shikamaru's elbow knocked his drink off the arm of the couch and though someone whistled when Ino's skirt rode up, it wasn't like they could hear it.

The kitchen, being the centre of alcohol obtainment, was one of the most crowded rooms in the house. The sturdy wooden table offered six or seven large blue and red coolers filled with cloudy ice and cold cans of beer. Meanwhile the countertop was lined with large bottles of clear vodka and dark rum and colourful fruit mixes. The kitchen's island had become something of a granite stage and the performance of the night seemed to be body shots. Complete with audience.

Sakura saw that Itachi was indeed doing shots...off Shizune's stomach. The dark-haired girl was laying flat on her back on the kitchen island, her blue shirt pushed up to bare her abdomen. She flushed and giggled as Itachi grinned and bent over her. The gaggle of drunk teens surrounding them hooted and laughed. Sakura raised an eyebrow, absently noting that Itachi had to be wearing contacts seeing as his usual thick glasses were nowhere in sight.

She snickered to herself. Wait until she told her strict medic-nin senpai about _this_.

Prepared to battle her way towards one of the kegs in the corner, Sakura caught a glimpse of a very green shirt in the dim room. Leaning casually on a large window sill were Neji and Lee, both watching the festivities with amusement and cradling orange sodas. Sakura smiled as the two non-drinkers threw jokes at one another.

Spotting something across the room, a frown crossed Lee's face. He set down his soda and punched Neji on the shoulder as a see-you-later. Neji smirked, his purple eyes flashing, but his friend was already weaving through the kitchen's shuffling crowds. He then disappeared up some narrow stairs that Sakura assumed were a back staircase to the second floor.

Her curiosity overriding her desire for more beer at the moment, Sakura put her empty cup down on the nearest horizontal surface and did her best to follow him. After weaving her way through the gaggle of high school and college students and clambering up the skinny staircase in her clunky heels, Sakura found herself in a hallway lined with bedrooms and a bathroom. It was a tiny bit quieter up here; the music had more obstacles to battle around.

She put a hand on the wall to steady her somewhat intoxicated self and tried to ignore the ominous thumps and delighted cries emanating from behind the nearest bedroom's mostly-closed door. She kept walking and heard familiar voices swimming out of a guest room's open doorway.

"--no, Kankurou's just being a belligerent ass as usual."

"That's truly unfortunate."

There was a squeak of bed springs as two bodies sat down.

"Well, it's fine. Usually Temari keeps him under control...she has the fucking alcohol tolerance of a rock. But she couldn't--"

Sakura's eavesdropping was cut off abruptly as Lee zipped to the door, closed it, and zipped back without interrupting Gaara's train of speech. Seems like she wasn't the only one using her otherworldly abilities for little tasks.

She pouted and clumsily sat down onto the corridor's blue carpet, half-wondering why her usual spying skills weren't up to par. How much had she had to drink? She didn't feel like calculating it.

She was tempted to press her ear to the door to glean some details but managed to scrounge up enough dignity to resist. Besides, the pounding music was echoing up the staircase and it was calling her name.

* * *

The hall clock cuckooed four in the morning before the Spirals' house quieted. The music had been killed and the rooms seemed to be reeling in their noiselessness. Most of the lights were out too, or dimmed, and a literal crowd of people were, as Naruto predicted, intent on spending the night.

Out front, Jiraiya was helping friends that were sober enough to drive cars carry friends that weren't to mentioned cars. Tsunade tiredly shoved an indigo sleeping bag into Sakura's arms and slammed a hand over her mouth to stifle a yawn.

The sound of car doors being slammed and goodbyes being called could be heard outside as the pink-haired teen dragged her feet around the TV room, looking for a place to lie down.

There was a bare strip of carpet next to the couch Shikamaru and Ino had been macking on earlier so Sakura clambered over a snoozing TenTen and Neji and nearly collapsed onto it. Only as she was figuring out how to roll out the floppy sleeping bag in the dim light did she realise that the mess of limbs and blanket on the couch were Sasuke and Naruto.

As she squinted in the darkness, she saw that Naruto was awake. He gave her a smile and a tired wave, being careful not to disturb the teen comfortably wrapped around him. Sasuke was dead asleep, his cheek resting on Naruto's t-shirt covered chest.

Sakura finished unrolling her plush bedding and she curled up into it, grateful to finally be able to close her itching eyes. She wondered why Naruto wasn't asleep too. There was no way he wasn't tired after a party like this.

Seconds later, she promptly fell into slumber.

Naruto watched Sakura's mussed head disappear from his view and then fixed his gaze on his best friend's close visage. Though his eyes were blinking sleepily, he reached up to brush an inky strand of hair behind Sasuke's ear.

Despite the exhaustion, he was reluctant to let himself succumb to sleep, wanting to watch over Sasuke just a little longer.

He knew his friend had already dreamed about the massacre of his entire family at a loved one's hands and that it had frightened the stoic 18-year-old asshole so badly that he had run to his older brother's room the first chance he got.

And Sasuke just didn't act like that.

So Naruto decided to fight sleep just a little longer.

* * *

"_Hinata, please...I'm your friend."_

_The girl's hard white eyes met her own green ones like a wall of ice. The empty training grounds seemed to silence around them._

"_You have no idea what it feels like," she hissed viciously. "You may be my team mate, Sakura, but that doesn't mean you know a thing about me."_

"_I know you're alone," Sakura said desperately, pleading with the dangerous girl that had become her first friend._

"_Do you know why?" Hinata snapped, making no move to brush aside the hair in her eyes._

_Sakura hesitated and so Hinata kept speaking, her voice a steely monotone._

"_My entire clan...the entire Hyuuga clan was killed by none other than my cousin Neji."_

_Sakura's hands covered her mouth._

"_God...Hinata...I'm, I'm sorry..." She managed to say. But feeling her sympathy crash to the floor between them, she eventually trailed off into silence._

"_I'm an avenger. I will spend my life hunting Hyuuga Neji down," Hinata said firmly but quietly. As she turned to walk away from her chilled team mate, she stated with finality, "I have no need for your friendship."_

Sakura tossed her head sideways, waking herself with a startled gasp. She stared at the square of sunlight on Naruto's living room ceiling and vaguely concluded that it had to be nearing noon.

What an incredibly vivid dream, she thought, remembering with wonder the sharpness of the feelings and the clarity of the images.

She didn't have long to dwell on it though. A pained grunt suddenly came from one of the occupants on the couch and it slammed Sakura back to reality so quickly that she nearly stopped breathing.

_What the hell did she think she was doing?_

She remembered her drunken behaviour of the previous night with a piercing, humiliating anger. She was on a mission and two of her closest friends were next to her, being forced to relive possibly traumatizing events of their other lives because of _her_ actions and _what was she doing?_

Berating herself harshly, Sakura rushed to kick away the sleeping bag and clamber to her feet.

"Wake up!" She commanded, ignoring the sour dryness in her mouth and throat as she shook awake the boys dreaming on the couch.

As Sasuke soared towards consciousness, he immediately cringed away from her hand, the light coming in through the window, and then most violently, Naruto's warm body, which he had been using as a pillow.

Naruto woke up, compressing a hand against a wound in his shoulder that wasn't there, and Sasuke continued to scramble backwards and away.

Sakura stilled, her eyes locked on the placement of Naruto's hand. Dread snaked through her entire body and froze her solid.

"The Valley of the End," she whispered, her face ashen.

Naruto sat slowly, inching backwards and pulling his legs away from Sasuke. His blue eyes were riveted on his best friend's but Sasuke's gaze was glued in horror to the hand Naruto was pressing into his chest. The blonde finally looked down at it, breathing unsteadily.

He knew he wasn't physically injured, of course. The pain that had been excruciatingly vivified in his dream had evaporated into smoke as soon as daylight had hit his eyes. He forced his sweating palm away from his t-shirt and, staring at his hand, got the sudden image of a wicked, poisonous red claw. He sucked in another juddering breath and only looked up when he heard Sasuke get off the couch and stride away as fast as he could without running.

Sakura suddenly had a pair of hands on her shoulders and her gaze was forcefully directed into Naruto's frantic stare.

"Do I still have the fox?"

"What?"

"The fox! The demon! Is that thing still inside me!? Did you bring it with you?"

"No," Sakura exclaimed, startled. "I don't have even a fraction of the chakra it would take to summon Kyuubi's consciousness. You are nothing but yourself."

Naruto was still breathing as though he'd just run a marathon. But he gave a jerky, relieved nod and abashedly released his grip on her. He swallowed hard and then looked after the direction Sasuke had gone.

"You better go after him," he said gravely, adding to the dismay wrapped around Sakura's heart. "He probably doesn't want to see me right now."

* * *

Many of the teenagers that had opted to stay the night were still asleep despite the light pouring into the entire house. Sakura cautiously stepped over sleeping bags and piles of blankets and couples snuggling, thankful she had kicked off her shoes sometime during the night. She heard some quiet voices and the gurgle of a coffeemaker in the kitchen but didn't move towards them, instead stopping outside the half-open bathroom door.

She peered in quietly and saw Sasuke holding his hands under the sink's faucet. He didn't move and just stared somberly as the water ran clear over his palms and fingers. Sasuke could see for himself that they weren't covered in blood.

But they had been a minute ago. They had been covered in Naruto's blood. Because he had...

His stomach suddenly turned so violently queasy that he removed his hands from the running water in favour of gripping the sink's porcelain edge. He swallowed, trying to forget the feel of electricity squirming in his palm, the sound of the water's surface rippling beneath them, the feeling of his elbow held stiffly inside a warm body's beating, bleeding chest, the sight of Naruto's bright eyes flickering into a dim deadness...

Sasuke spun around and abruptly heaved in the toilet. At the sound of vomit sloshing into the basin, Sakura pushed the door open and entered worriedly. Had she woken him up too soon for him to know that he hadn't actually killed his best friend?

She opened her mouth to set things straight but suddenly Sasuke stopped wiping his mouth and gripped his neck.

"God, feels like my neck's on fucking fire..." He choked out with a groan, bending until his knees hit the tile floor and his sweating forehead was resting against the edge of the toilet seat.

She reached out and touched his shoulder, then gently but firmly pulled his hand away from his neck. The pale skin was flaring up an angry red and an inky black tomoe bubbled up until it was clear and defiant.

"Oh no," she whispered in soft, unbelieving horror.

Sasuke stood and pushed past her, exiting the little blue bathroom without turning his bloodshot eyes on her once. She numbly let him, her hands falling to rest listlessly at her side.

A teenaged boy with a shaved head meandered by the open bathroom door in the same direction Sasuke had gone. But Sakura, stunned into inaction, took no notice of him.

* * *

_Author's Notes_:

Thanks SO SO SO much to **DarkRavie**, **Fyawkes** **and** **Leo**,**DramaQueen1193**, **Makayla**, **Hasamaki**, **lonelylulaby**,**TimeForTea**, **Saniah**, and **I LUVS IT**.

**Narufan4ev** – Glad to be the exception:)

**FREAKSHOW1** – I think so too. ;)

**QuestofDreams** – Wow, thanks so much! I hadn't thought about going into the Time Thrust Jutsu's background but it sounds like a fun idea so I think I'll see what I can come up with. Thanks again! Heh, I admire your writing so much, your review kinda made my entire week.


	7. Ikinoshita

**Flick Through VII**

Ikinoshita (Gasp)

* * *

_Author_: Ms Trick

_Notes_: I thrive on reviews and cupcakes. I would be honoured to accept either.

* * *

Konoha

Summer continued its merry days of warm sunshine and fluffy blue clouds, disregarding the bloody battles and desperate cries of ninja. Had the sun been avidly watching, though, it would have been on the edge of its heavenly seat.

In a completely trashed circle of forest, surrounded by mutilated trees and ripped earth, Naruto and Sasuke had finally met on the battlefield and had been throwing everything they had at each other. After ten minutes, they had both pulled back to breathe and now stood tense and waiting for the other one to move.

Clangs of kunai and the rumble of explosive tags emanated from the thick forest outside their perimeter of destruction. Trees were bent and blackened sticks, kunai or kunai holes were sunk into every available surface, and the ground had been overturned and fissured and trampled. Even as each waited for the other to attack, Sasuke knew they would never finish this battle. Their commanders had worked far too hard to keep them apart to let them fight uninterrupted for much longer. Tsunade herself was probably racing towards them right now.

Sasuke grit his teeth and held back a snarl at the thought that their battle would end as a mere tie. He flew at Naruto like lightning and Naruto had zero time to react before a well-aimed fist went straight through his head. Sasuke blinked in surprise as the clone popped into smoke. His red eyes slid around their destroyed battle ground, looking for any sign of movement, smirking at if the blond thought he could hide with his colour scheme.

Then rose up the stampede of what had to be at least 300 pairs of feet charging toward him. Sasuke turned to find himself faced with an army of orange and black blonds that multiplied in front of his eyes, and he re-evaluated his conclusion that Naruto couldn't hide. Pleased at the challenge, he raised his katana dangerously and made note of which clones were conjuring Rasengans.

Sasuke had only worked his way through about twenty clones before a gargantuan shadow fell over their battleground, a territory Sasuke found himself getting defensive of. The hundreds of Narutos all yelped and ran in all directions to avoid the slimy body of Katsui. The Queen Slug's interference was impossible to miss. She lay like a felled, blue and white building across the cleared space with Tsunade standing on her head in the hot sunshine.

"Tch," Sasuke said in irritation, taking advantage of the mayhem caused by so many Narutos getting out of her way. Cutting a swath through them, he left a trail of evaporating smoke in his wake.

Nobody--certainly not any of the Naruto clones and certainly not Naruto himself--noticed Sasuke grabbing the arm of one of the clones and dragging it along after him. Caught off guard, it gave a yelp of surprise.

Taking care not to let the clone disperse, Sasuke disappeared with it into the dense forest.

"What the hell are you doing? I'm not the original, you know!" The clone yelled into Sasuke's ear.

He had to admire the dark-haired shinobi's skill, though; the grip on his arm was just tight enough not to let him escape but not tight enough to trigger a dispersal. It was a completely foreign concept to kidnap a clone. It's not like you could torture it for information or anything.

They were now too far to see Katsui's huge presence through the thick foliage and numerous trees. Sasuke abruptly stopped and shoved the clone against the tree, again with the perfect amount of pressure to keep it in existence. And then he was kissing it.

He pressed his mouth to the facsimile of his rival, to the guy who may still be his best friend, the guy who may be his only friend, the only real friend he ever had, the only person he would care, really _care_, about should he die in this war. He kissed its warm mouth hard and he heard the clone sharply inhale through its nose.

It tasted like chakra, to no surprise. And it was this unfortunate taste that pushed Sasuke over the edge. With the razor-sharp ache of loneliness and desperate wishing, he plunged a kunai into the clone's stomach. He felt the smoke hit his face as it dispersed, its mouth still open and its eyelids heavy to the last second.

Back at the now deserted zone of destruction, Naruto was grumpily waiting on a rock for Tsunade to come scold him. He gasped in suddenly as a bucket of images and experience was dumped onto him. With a heart-stopper of a moment, a wave of scarlet rushed through his face and neck. His hand flew to his mouth and, contrasting his bright red face, his blue eyes widened.

Not too far away, Sasuke dropped his head into his hands, unsure of anything anymore.

* * *

Reno

Sakura yawned as she blearily peered into her locker, trying to remember if she'd need any books for her afternoon classes. Since finals were just about over, every class consisted of watching movies or playing games, anything to kill time until Wednesday, which was their last day of school.

But the entire senior class wasn't waiting for the beginning of summer, they were abuzz for the upcoming Friday: Their Prom Night.

The chatter of a bubbly Ino kept flying into her right ear and she made sure to respond at some appropriate times. Though right now she couldn't quite keep track of the something Shikamaru had said or the something Shikamaru had done or the something Ino still needed to do before the Prom. It all seemed so...inane to a shinobi. Even her 2007 persona was too tired to make much of an effort to match the blonde girl's vibrancy. Hell, it was Monday morning, for godssake.

Glancing at Ino, another blonde head of hair caught her eye. Naruto had separated from the mass of teenagers moving towards the cafeteria and was approaching his locker on the opposite side of the hallway from Sakura. He wasn't wearing his goggles today. And he hadn't looked like he'd slept much.

Sakura watched Naruto watch Sasuke purposefully stride past him without a glance.

"Hellooooo? Sakura?"

She dully turned her eyes back to Ino.

"You okay?"

"Tired," Sakura mumbled.

Naruto stared into his open locker for a few seconds before slamming it hard and jog down the crowded hallway after his best friend.

"I gotta go, Ino," Sakura stuttered, taking off abruptly.

Ino frowned and tucked a short strand of hair behind her ear. Noticing that Sakura hadn't closed her locker, Ino quietly did it for her and made up her mind to grill the pink-haired girl about this weird behaviour later.

Dodging around Shikamaru, Sakura rounded the corner just in time to see Naruto grab Sasuke by the scruff of his black button-down shirt and haul him unceremoniously through an open classroom door. Sasuke's bag thumped to the ground unnoticed and Naruto kicked the classroom door shut with a bang.

"What the fuck?!" Emanated from the door.

Sakura worried her bottom lip, hoping this confrontation would prove healthy and wouldn't end up a repeat of the hospital roof. She scooped up Sasuke's navy book bag and just thanked fate that lunch time meant the hallway would be relatively empty. Not that anyone in school would want to get in the middle of a Naruto/Sasuke brawl. Among Leafseek Highschool students, it was well-known safety hazard.

Loud voices continued to argue from inside the empty classroom and Sakura, still biting her lip, hesitantly ambled to the wall next to the door. She clutched Sasuke's backpack like a lifeline and resisted the urge to peer in the door's large glass window. Meanwhile, Sakura's inner Reno Girl was still whining that she'd just left Ino in mid-sentence and the blonde girl was SO not going to let that go.

The cool of the corridor's wall against Sakura's contrasted with the heated words she was eavesdropping on.

"--like I'm too fragile to handle the fact that we're fucked up in some other dimension?"

"What are you, a fucking moron? I shoved my fist through your chest!"

"Uh, no. No, you didn't. If you haven't noticed, THAT DIDN'T HAPPEN TO US!"

"It could have," Sasuke said in a voice so deadly serious it made Naruto pause for a second. Sakura could imagine the deep, frustrated frown on his face. She had seen it often enough in her time period.

"No, Sasuke--"

"No, you idiot! You don't get it. I shoved my fist through your chest and it made sense. I needed to defeat you and I did and that justifies it. Even now, that other me can't regret that. And I can't regret it either. Do you get that?"

"What the fuck do you have to regret? That wasn't our fight. Anyway, you didn't kill me. We both know how that fight ended. The other me was _unconscious_. If you really wanted to kill me, you would have."

"Fuck you."

"I'll take that as a 'You're right and I'm too stubborn to admit it' and I'll say, thank you."

Sakura could hear it in their voices: Naruto had practically already dismissed this altercation but Sasuke was still being tormented by the shadows of motives and actions he knew could be his own with only a few twists of fate. Naruto didn't quite understand that Sasuke couldn't forget this as easily as he could. Sasuke had been given a glimpse of just how badly he could hurt someone close to him if it meant pursuing a personal goal.

What he couldn't get his mind around was that Naruto had already forgiven him. Not only for the actions of their other-dimensional selves, but for any injury Sasuke could possibly do to him here in Reno. Sakura knew the same went for her Naruto.

She was suddenly jerked out of her mulling when the classroom door burst open and Sasuke stalked out with his hands fisted and without looking back. He didn't even notice the wide-eyed Sakura. Her heart beating rapidly, she watched him until he disappeared loudly through a pair of double doors.

At length, Naruto appeared in the classroom's doorway. He blinked in surprise when he saw Sakura sitting on the floor, hugging Sasuke's bag. Exasperated, he ran a hand through his messy blond hair.

"Were you looking for us?" He asked, trying to fill in the awkward silence.

"Um, uh, yeah. I think, uh, you guys should practice using your abilities in combat. So I was thinking after school, the five of us would drive back out to the desert."

"Sooner we find your bad guy, the sooner we stop having these dreams, right?" He questioned suddenly, his eyes on where Sasuke had exited.

"Yeah," Sakura offered, though in truth, she wasn't sure when exactly the dose of her chakra would fade from their systems or when exactly the dreams would stop.

* * *

_Author's Notes_:

Holy fuck I haven't updated in a year. How did that HAPPEN? And this is a pitiful update, I know. Sorry!!

Thanks to

**lonelylulaby**

**DarkRavie**

**Hasamaki**

**Makayla**

**FREAKSHOW1**

**TimeForTea**

**moonlover825**

**Ador**

**Moony**

**fullofmisery**

**Rockleerox93**

**Heaven Cobra**

**Luchia13**

**Akako-Chan**

**Fields of View**

**Dark Mican**

**HoshitheHorse**

**ChocohalicsAnonymus**

**Ayu-Chan15**

**nellie330**

**Acidic-time**

**Lady Valtaya**

**songsix**

**unheardcries**

**I LOVE this** - How can you be sorry about giving me two reviews? I eat reviews like candy! Hopefully, I answered some of your questions here.

**Fyawkes and Leo** – I haven't answered your questions because you've got to keep reading! ;) Thanks for the review!

**gallatica7** – I'm sorry for the delays! Real life is kinda full of five college courses. :P Thanks so much for the cupcake and review!

**Yuna's Aeon** – That review made me so happy. ;) I'm glad my story's doing its job. Stay tuned!


End file.
